Last year, 610 people died in traffic accidents in the Netherlands. That’s a drop of almost eight per cent from 2019.
According to the Dutch Bureau of Statistics, 51 fewer were killed on the roads in 2020 than in 2019. It’s also the lowest number since 2015. Noord-Brabant saw the highest number of road fatalities but also the sharpest decline.
In 2020, there were 99 traffic deaths in that province. In 2019, this number was 142 in 2019 and 150 in 2018. There may have been fewer deaths in total, but the number of cyclists killed on the roads increased.
Most in 25 years
Of the 610 deaths, 229 were cyclists. That 26 more than in 2019. It’s also the highest it’s been in 25 years. Half of all traffic deaths were people aged 60 or older. Traffic mortality in this age group decreased from 324 in 2019 to 306 in 2020.
Of the people who died on Dutch roads last year, 453 were men and 157 women. The number of road fatalities among women fell by nearly 20%. Among men, the decline was quite a lot smaller, at 2,6%.
Lockdown
This is substantiated by data from the National Road Traffic Data Portal (NDW). The Netherlands went into its first lockdown in March 2020. Then, there was only a third as much traffic. That was on the last weekend in March and the first in April.
During the week, the roads were only 50% as busy. From mid-April 2020, traffic intensity began to increase gradually but dropped again after the summer. By the end of 2020, traffic activity on weekdays was between 70 and 80% of the 2019 level.
Source: CBS
