Greece has the highest rate of deaths in the European Union due to single-vehicle collisions (SVC), or a road accident in which only one vehicle is involved.
According to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) – a Brussels-based non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the numbers of road deaths and injuries in Europe – SVCs are responsible for one third of road fatalities in the EU in the 2013-2015 period.
In Greece, however, they were the cause of 42 percent of road deaths, ahead of Luxembourg and Cyprus with 41 percent, Belgium with 38 percent, Norway with 37 percent and France with 36 percent.
More specifically, mortality rates in Greece from SVCs are on average the EU’s highest, with 34 deaths per million inhabitants each year.
Moreover, 35 percent of SVC fatalities involved motorcycle riders who are more exposed to danger compared with car and truck drivers.
SVC mortality rates are higher in the 18-24 age group, with an average of 72 deaths in Greece for every million people in this bracket. This is way above the average of 23 EU countries, with 38 young drivers and riders per million killed in SVCs.
Meanwhile, according to the Greek Police, 37 people died in road accidents during the Easter period (April 7-23).
One has just to read the relevant news to confirm the reports. Just last week, a family in our neighborhood buried their son. The 20-year-old man was killed in a road accident. He was driving a motorcycle, had no helmet on.
How can forget the shocking accident with the Porsche that cost the lives of two 24-year-old men, a woman and a toddler?
Many reasons for this.
1. Drink driving is considered ‘trendy’ in Greece, part of the ‘I am the best driver in the world’ culture and ‘I am a good drink driver’ culture (trust me many of my friends have said these things to me!). So generally awful driving standards in Greece.
2. Police are badly paid, badly treated by the government, and not well equipped to deal with crazy drivers. If you get strict with drivers, they will be forced to drive better.
3. Roads are mostly pretty awful in Greece.
4. Everyone seems to be in a rush in Greece, part of the bad timekeeping culture I think.
5. People talk way too much on the phone in Greece, and they are ‘too cool to use bluetooth or earphones if the car is old.
6. People do not maintain their cars well in Greece for the most part, partly due to carelessness (i mean the owner of Jumbo had enough money to make sure his tires are not 10 years old!!!), partly due to a lack of money to maintain the vehicles and partly due to the fact that people simply bribe their KTEOS a lot!
Also add to this, cars in Greece on average are generally older and have less safety features than the newest ones.
As with most things in Greece, it is complicated, so there are no easy fixes to the above problems. It will require quite a lot of ‘reforms’, a term KTG loves using = ))
just want to say that syrizee1 nailed it! That’s exactly right.
Speed kills!!! Only today while I was walking my dogs on a quiet road up the village, 3 separate cars driven by young people sped past me at a ridiculous speed. Mother’s and children, elderly and also tourists walk down this road and with cars travelling at that speed, they wouldn’t stand a chance!!