Ljubljana - Slovenia is looking to significantly reduce the number of road fatalities, with the government's vision for road safety for 2022 envisaging that no more than 70 people are killed in traffic this year. This compares to 115 road fatalities in the country last year, or 38% more than in 2020, according to data from the General Police Administration.

The government's report on the implementation of the national road safety programme for 2020 says that the vision or 2022 is no more than 70 road casualties and no more than 460 seriously injured people on Slovenian roads.

In 2020, 80 people died on the roads in Slovenia, which is 22% than in 2019, and 675 traffic participants were seriously injured, which is 139% less than in the year before.

The number of deaths and injuries on the Slovenian roads in 2020 was the lowest since 1954, when the official statistics on road accidents started to be kept.

One of the reasons for such a decrease was the reduced volume of traffic due to the Covid-19 epidemic, with the average monthly decrease standing at 18% in 2020.

Other factors contributing to the drop were intensive activities of stakeholders in traffic safety and police supervision, the report says, noting that the Traffic Safety Agency had realised the goal of fewer than 83 road casualties in 2020.

The national road safety programme focuses on the Vision Zero, i.e. zero fatalities in road traffic, looking to establish a safe transport system and ensure vehicle technology for greater safety by developing assistance systems.

Slovenia came the closest to the vision in December 2020, when there were no fatalities in road traffic accidents.

However, 2021 brought an increase in the number of traffic accidents and, consequently, road fatalities and serious injuries, as more than 16,600 traffic accidents took place last year, or 1,600 more than in 2020.

According to the incomplete data for 2021 from the General Police Administration, for until noon on 29 December, 115 people were killed on Slovenian roads last year, or 38% more than the year before.

The most fatal months last year were May and August (17 fatalities each), while there was only one fatality in January.

The Traffic Safety Agency said that it would double the scope of nationwide preventive campaigns this year and that new campaigns were also planned for motorcycle drivers and users of electric scooters.