Over the past year, there were almost 691 fewer accidents in Poland than in the same period last year, and 281 fewer people died. After the change of regulations, drivers drive slower and more cautiously, but pedestrians are still killed. Their situation has not improved, reports the daily Rzeczpospolita.

The newspaper reports that this year, there were 18,479 accidents in the country, in which 1,595 people died. This is much less than a year ago.

According to the daily, overall trend is positive as drivers are driving more slowly for fear of severe fines and are losing their licences for speeding less frequently. However, the situation of pedestrians has not improved – and mainly for pedestrians the penalties for drivers have been extended to encourage them to drive more carefully.

Inspector Robert Opas of the Police Headquarters, in an interview with Rzeczpospolita journalist, pointed out that all the road safety data from this year are good, except for those concerning pedestrians. According to the published data, 238 pedestrians were killed in 3409 accidents in the urban area in 2022 (one in 14 fatalities). The situation is worst in the country, with as many as 118 pedestrians losing their lives in 337 accidents.

“The high fatality rate in accidents involving pedestrians outside urban areas is closely linked to the speed limit. At a collision speed of 60 km/h or more a pedestrian has no chance of survival”, warns Anna Zielińska of the Polish Road Safety Observatory of the Motor Transport Institute.

“Rzeczpospolita” calculates that the highest number of pedestrians died in Silesia – 42, in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship – 37 (with 22 killed in Warsaw alone), in the Łódzkie Voivodeship – 36, and in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship – 32. The lowest number – only 4 people – in the Opolskie Voivodeship.

Hit-and-runs were more frequent on the pedestrian crossings- 1,874 times this year, 240 more than in the same period last year (although 233 fewer than two years ago). There were 113 deaths in crossings this year, 14 more than in 2021.

Arkadiusz Slomczynski