30% fewer road deaths on weekend nights

While weekend nighttime road accidents killed 12 people a month on average in 2011, last year that figure dropped to 8.5 per month. Given this sharp decline, weeknights are for the first time potentially more lethal than weekend nights. More road deaths occur in the daytime than at night at weekends, according to the Belgian Road Safety Institute’s 2012 Road Safety Barometer, report Het Nieuwsblad and the Sudpresse newspapers. That trend was reversed this month, however. The death toll decreases most sharply on weekend nights among young drivers. This is due, according to the institute, to roadside checks and campaigns: last year, the institute was present each week at the entrances of nightclubs, parties and festivals. The number of deaths at the scene of an accident dropped from 775 in 2011 to 672 in 2012. Taking into account the number of people who died in hospital within a month of an accident, the total was 750 victims in 2012, down from 858 in 2011.