In 2016, 175,791 road accidents occurred in Italy resulting in death or injury with 3,283 deaths (within 30 days) and 249,175 injured.
After two years of stagnation, the number of deaths decreased again, compared to 2015 (-145 units, -4.2%).
Among the victims, the number of cyclists (275, + 9.6%) and mopeds users (116, + 10.5%) increased, the passenger cars users (1.470, + 0.1%) were stable, while motorcyclists (657, -15.0%) and pedestrians (570, -5.3%) showed a decrease.
For the first time since 2001, accidents and injuries recorded an increase, respectively, equal to+ 0.7% and + 0.9%, (Figure 1). Generally serious injuries, based on hospital discharge data, increased the number in 2016, over 17,000 compared to 16,000 in 2015 (+ 9%). The ratio between serious injuries and deaths rose to 5.2 in 2016, from 4.7 in the previous year.
The decline in the number of casualties in Italy is mainly due to the decrease on motorways (including ring roads and motorways junctions) and rural roads (274 and 1,546 deaths, -10.2 and -4.6% over the previous year). A smaller decrease is noted on urban roads (1,463 dead; -2.6%). Significant decreases are detected for the main municipalities, all in total, for which the number of deaths, in the built up area, decreased by 6.5%.
Even in the EU28, in 2016, the number of road accidents victims came back to decrease (-1.8% compared to 2015): 25,720 against 26,190 in 2015. Between 2016 and 2010 (benchmark year for the European Road Safety Strategy), deaths decreased by 18.6% at European level. Italy recorded a reduction of 20.2%, a better result than the European average. Every million inhabitants, in 2016, 50.6 deaths due to road accident in the EU28 were counted and 54.2 in Italy, which is ranked 14th in the European classification, behind Sweden, UK, Spain, Germany and France.
Among the most frequent misbehaviors were distraction, failure to observe precedence rules and high speed (41.5% in total). The most sanctioned violations of the Road Code were, in fact, speed excess, failures to use safety devices and the use of mobile phone driving.
The year 2015 was characterised by a recovery of mobility; the new registrations increased by 18.2% compared to the previous year, the car fleet was 1.4%. Motorway journeys also increased by 3.3% in respect of 2015, with over 82 billion kilometres travelled.