Road casualties

In 2022, 282 people died in traffic accidents in the Flemish Region. That is a decrease of 9% compared to 2021. Compared to 2005, the number of road deaths has more than halved.

In addition, in 2022 there were 2,389 seriously injured road casualties on the roads in the Flemish Region. In 2005 there were 3,912. The number of minor injuries fell from 36,116 to 25,700 between 2005 and 2022.

In 2022, 33% of road deaths were in a passenger car. Cyclists accounted for 28% of road deaths. 13% of the road fatalities were pedestrians and 12% were on a motorcycle.

Compared to 2005, there were far fewer deaths in passenger cars in 2022. The decrease is smaller for the other types of road users. Only cyclists saw an increase in the number of road deaths between 2005 and 2022. The share of vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists) in the total number of road deaths was 41% in 2022. In 2005 it was 19%.

In 2022, the differences in the number of road fatalities by age remain relatively limited. This is a big difference with the situation in 2005, when the number of road fatalities among people in their twenties was still clearly higher than among the other age groups.

With 2,671 fatalities and serious injuries in the Flemish Region in 2022, the average number of fatalities and serious injuries in that year was 0.40 per 1,000 inhabitants. In West Flanders and East Flanders, many municipalities were above that average. Flemish Brabant had many municipalities that remain below average.

These are figures based on 1 calendar year. If a major accident with several victims has occurred in a certain municipality in that year, that municipality will quickly exceed the Flemish average. This is certainly the case for municipalities with a small number of inhabitants.

The average number of road deaths in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU27) was 42 deaths per million inhabitants in 2020. With 38 deaths per million inhabitants, the Flemish Region was just below that. This figure was much lower in the Brussels-Capital Region, much higher in the Walloon Region.