Published on November 30, 2022

Road accidents, the ‘truce’ is over

The travel bans and restrictions caused by the pandemic now seem to be a bad memory. ISTAT attests to this by certifying that the first half of 2022 is characterized by a clear upturn in mobility. Motorway journeys have increased by an average of 25.6 percent, and the upturn in traffic mainly concerns light vehicles, particularly passenger cars, with an increase of 34 percent. The growth recorded for heavy vehicles was much smaller (+7%). A similar situation was observed for traffic on the main extra-urban network: in the first four months of the year, increases reached levels of 30%, while in May and June the variations compared to the previous year, still positive, were around 4%.

The first consequence of the increased traffic is road accidents. According to preliminary estimates by the National Institute of Statistics, in the six months January-June 2022, there was an increase in the number of road accidents with injuries (81,437, +24.7%), injuries (108,996, +25.7%) and fatalities (1,450, +15.3%) compared to the same period in 2021. As expected, road accidents were also on the rise compared to the first half of 2020 (accidents +64.3%, injuries +63.0%, fatalities +43.2%). In comparison with the first six months of 2019, however, there was still a slight decrease: road accidents -2.6%; injuries -6.8%, and fatalities -5.5%.

In comparison with the first half of 2021, the number of victims increased mainly on non-urban roads (+20%), followed by urban roads (+11%) and motorways (+10%). Compared to the first six months of 2019, in the first half of 2022, victims decrease significantly on motorways (-11.8%), while on urban and extra-urban roads the decrease is estimated at around 5%.

For the decade 2021-2030, the European road safety targets envisage halving the number of victims and serious injuries by 2030. The path towards achieving these goals, therefore, seems to have already begun with some difficulty.

The need to live in a safer environment, travel on city streets or motorways, reducing the risks of traumatic events caused by those who do not respect the rules of the road is commonly felt. With this in mind, Viasat, Italian excellence in satellite and IoT security services that integrate the latest telematic technologies to guarantee all-round safety for the vehicle and its occupants, provides motorists with Prevention, Protection, and Assistance solutions and services that until recently were unthinkable

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