Portugal continues to be the country in Europe with the most road safety. This year, there has already been almost 135 thousand accidents, causing 453 deaths and 2,550 serious injuries, an increase in the number of disasters and a decrease in fatalities compared to 2023.
The president of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) regretted, this Monday, that Portugal continues to be “the country in Europe with the most road safety” and called on the Government to approve the National Road Safety Strategy this year.
Rui Ribeirowho has led ANSR for almost six years, took advantage of the presentation of the Christmas and New Year 2024/2025 campaign “Mai Safe Parties”, to highlight that reducing road accidents cannot be achieved through awareness-raising and inspection campaigns, and that it is necessary a change of strategy.
The president of ANSR said that the National Road Safety Strategy – Vision Zero 2030 was delivered to the Government at the end of 2022, which aims to reduce by 50% the number of deaths and serious injuries on the road by 2030, appealing to the minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blascoand the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Paulo Simões Ribeiroso that they approve this document that “is sorely needed” by the country.
It is estimated that since 2017 about 5,000 people died on Portuguese roads and more than 19,000 were seriously injured.
This year, almost 135 thousand road accidents have been recorded in Portugal, causing 453 dead and 2,550 seriously injured. Compared to the same period in 2023, there were 2,939 more road disasters, six fewer deaths, 14 more serious injuries and 306 more minor injuries.
The report also makes a comparison with 2019, the reference year for monitoring the targets for reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries by 2030 set by the European Commission and Portugal, a year in which 134,692 accidents occurred (216 more), 502 deaths ( minus 49), 2,434 serious injuries (plus 116) and 43,149 minor injuries (minus 1,730).
According to ANSR, the districts with the highest number of accidents are Lisboa (23.328), Porto (22.727), Aveiro (10.518), Braga (10.248) e Faro (10,094), while the fatal victims were in greater numbers in the districts of Lisbon (54), Porto (54) and Braga (39).
These data concern fatal victims whose death was declared at the scene of the accident or on the way to hospital.
ANSR also indicates that the national average, between 2018 and 2024, is 446 deaths and 2,315 serious injuries per year.
The interactive road accidents platform, where accident data from the previous day will be published daily, is available from this Monday on .
Rui Ribeiro emphasizes that it is essential to approve the National Road Safety Strategy, which is based on five principles: “Safe users, safer vehicles, safer infrastructures, safer speed and intervention after accidents.
“Portugal cannot be considered one of the safest countries in the world as long as it is from countries with greater road safety at European level“, he further said.
