The International Transport Forum's Road Safety Annual Report 2020

27 October 2020

The International Transport Forum's Road Safety Annual Report 2020 is now available. It provides an overview of road safety performance for the 42 countries participating in the  Forum’s permanent working group on road safety, known as the IRTAD Group. Based on the latest data, the report describes recent road safety developments in these countries and compares their performance against the main road safety indicators.

The report highlights that the number of road deaths in 2019 in most countries was lower than the 2016- 18 average. It also reports that ten countries reached the lowest number of road deaths in 2018 since systematic recording began: Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Lithuania and Slovenia.

Of particular interest is the chapter on the effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic. It shows that the number of road fatalities fell significantly during the first months of 2020. The main reason for this was lockdown imposed in many countries . Strict containment measures aimed at reducing the spread of the virus resulted in a decrease in economic activity and in the movement of people and, therefore, in the number of road casualties. However, it seems that the number of road deaths has not fallen in proportion to the decrease in traffic. Some countries contributing to this report registered increases in average speeds and in the severity of road crashes.

Detailed country profiles are available for download from the website . They are updated with the latest data as these become available