The number of fatalities on Belgian roads rose by 39 percent in the first half of the year compared to last year, according to the road safety barometer of Vias Institute. A total of 231 people died, almost as many as before the corona crisis. The number of accidents involving e-steps and electric bicycles is also increasing. “We are already talking about five accidents a day with an e-step,” says Stef Willems of the Vias traffic institute to Freek Braeckamn at HLN Live. “The numbers really don’t look good.”
“In the road safety barometer we look at the figures for the first six months of this year. We do this every three months. These are the figures from the beginning of this year to the end of July. We compared those figures with the same period last year. We are talking here about the number of deaths on the spot. Of course, there are also people who die in hospital. That number has not yet been added to these figures. The current balance is therefore even heavier than we communicate now,” says Stef Willems of Vias Safety Institute at HLN Live.
“231 people were killed (+40 percent). Last year there were 166. At that time there were still a lot of restrictions due to the corona pandemic, 2020 was also an atypical year,” Willems continues. “Actually, we are now about the same level as before the corona pandemic in 2019.”
The number of pedestrians who died rose from 13 to 35, a worrying trend. This increase cannot be explained solely by the terrible accident in Strépy in which six pedestrians/carnivalists were killed. Vias also registered an increase in crashes involving mopeds (+28 percent), bicycles (+23 percent) and pedestrians (+20 percent). “We will have to protect everything that is vulnerable in our traffic. Those numbers really don’t look good.”
In Flanders the number of road deaths rose from 99 to 113, the highest number since 2016.
In Wallonia the increase was even greater than in Flanders (111 deaths instead of 63).
In Brussels the death toll rose from 4 to 7.
In Flanders, the increase was largest in the province of West Flanders. There, the number of deaths rose from 13 to 31. Twelve of these were in accidents involving a truck. In East Flanders, the number of road deaths rose from 18 to 24. Antwerp had a status quo. In Limburg (-4 deaths) and Flemish Brabant (-6 deaths), the balance was more positive than last year.
E-steps and electric bicycles
Vias has recently also kept separate figures for electric bicycles and e-steps. “In the first six months of this year, we see 2.5 times more accidents involving electric scooters than in the same period last year,” Willems explains. In Flanders, the number of accidents involving an e-step doubles from 181 to 388.
“On the one hand, there is a better registration of the number of accidents with e-scooters, on the other hand, there are more accidents in the field. We are already talking about 5 accidents a day with an electric scooter. New rules have been introduced from 1 July. Let’s hope they have an effect. For example, a minimum age of 16 years applies. It is also no longer allowed to ride on the sidewalk and it is no longer allowed to ride with two on a scooter. In 11 percent of the accidents involving an e-scooter, the drivers were younger than 16 years.”
The number of crashes involving cyclists is increasing by more than 20 percent. There were 4,581 injury accidents, the highest number we recorded in the last 10 years. The number of accidents involving electric bicycles rose enormously. There were 1,433 injury accidents compared to 977 last year, an increase of 47 percent.
The number of injury accidents increased in the three regions: from 4,433 to 4,954 in Wallonia (+12 percent), from 9,513 to 11,534 in Flanders (+21 percent) and from 1,578 to 2,079 in Brussels (+32 percent). Nationally, the number of injury crashes is increasing for all types of road users, except for truck crashes. That number remains stable.
Objective
“The numbers have to go down. Targets have been set at international, national and regional levels to halve the numbers by 2030. The reference year 2019 has been used. There has been no structural improvement in road safety in our country over the past five years. The numbers are stagnating. You cannot tolerate that.”
“Weak road users must be able to move in complete safety. We really need to focus on that in the coming years. This can be done, among other things, by focusing even more on secure infrastructure. We recently published a study on the driver’s license with points. This can also be a tool to help unscrupulous drivers to repent more quickly. It is not a panacea, but it is a tool that is missing in our country. Vias dares to argue to introduce this,” Willems concludes at HLN Live.
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