BUCHAREST, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Romania has the highest rate of deaths among cyclists and pedestrians in road traffic accidents as a proportion of the population in the European Union (EU), according to data published by EU statistical body Eurostat on Tuesday.
The numbers of cyclists and pedestrians who died in road accidents in the eastern European country were 10 and 37 respectively per one million inhabitants in 2017, at the opposite pole being Luxembourg with no deaths for cyclists, and Denmark with three pedestrians killed per one million inhabitants.
The average at EU level is some 4 and 11 deaths respectively per million inhabitants.
In Romania, there were 1,951 deaths recorded in road accidents in 2017, of which 812 were deaths among passenger cars, 733 among pedestrians and 191 among cyclists.
In total, the number of deaths recorded in road accidents in the European Union was about 25,000 in 2017, which means 50 fatal accidents per one million inhabitants.
According to earlier data from the European Commission, Romania had the highest road fatality rate in the EU in 2017 of 98 deaths per one million inhabitants, doubling the EU average of 49 deaths.
Romania, together with Bulgaria, are the only member states recording a fatality rate higher than 80 deaths per one million inhabitants, while most member states had a road fatality rate below 60 deaths, and eight of them stood below 40 deaths.
