Croatia ranks seventh in the European Union in terms of decrease in the number of road fatalities, the Minister of the Interior, Davor Bozinovic, said at a conference on road safety in Zagreb on Tuesday.

Bozinovic said that the relatively good results were not satisfactory and that the Ministry of the Interior was exploring new ways, especially those offered by modern technology, to reduce the number of road accidents and deaths. In this context he talked about the importance of prevention and raising awareness.

The main goal of the national road safety programme is to halve the number of road fatalities by 2020. This could be achieved by eliminating accident black spots, improving pedestrian and cycle paths, and installing more road paths, said the Ministry, adding that the four main “road killers” were drunk driving, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, and distraction, such as using a mobile phone while driving.

Minister Bozinovic said that the decrease in the number of road deaths had been achieved, while the number of vehicles and drivers had been increasing.

He added that since 1994 the number of vehicles had increased by 1.3 million (154 percent) and the number of drivers by 900,000 (61 percent), while the use of public transport was on the decline.

“This is making the roads busier and more dangerous,” the minister said.

More than 300 people are killed in road accidents annually, said Bozinovic, adding that the damage caused by traffic accidents is estimated at 8 billion kuna (€1.08 billion) or 2.7 percent of GDP.

(€1 = 7.41 kuna)