A new significant drop in the number of people killed in road accidents was recorded in Cyprus in 2013, according to the figures released on Monday by the European Commission.

In 2013, the number of road accident victims in Cyprus was 53 per million inhabitants compared to 61 in 2012, recording a decrease of 14%. In 2001, there were 140 road accident victims per million inhabitants.

A decrease was also recorded in the EU as a whole.

This, 2013, was the second year in a row that saw an impressive decrease in the number of people killed on Europe`s roads, a European Commission press release says.

According to preliminary figures, the number of road fatalities has decreased by 8% compared to 2012, following the 9% decrease between 2011 and 2012.

This means that the EU is now in a good position for reaching the strategic target of halving road deaths between 2010 and 2020. Road safety is one of the big success stories of Europe. The 17% decrease since 2010 means that some 9000 lives have been saved.

Country by country statistics (see table below) show that the number of road deaths still varies greatly across the EU. On average, there were 52 road deaths per million inhabitants in the EU.

The countries with the lowest number of road fatalities remain the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, reporting around 30 deaths per million inhabitants. Notably Spain, Germany and Slovakia have improved their positions on the list, moving in among the traditional top performers.

Those Member States that have made progress but whose road fatality figures are still much higher than the EU average (Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania and Greece) are encouraged to strengthen their efforts.