You would expect that the number of fatalities in traffic would be less in times of the corona crisis. Many people work at home, schools were closed for weeks and people stay at home earlier in this crisis time. As a result, there is much less traffic on Dutch roads, which means that there are automatically fewer traffic accidents. Unfortunately, the number of road deaths is no less.

The number of road accidents this year between mid-March and the end of April compared to last year halved. The number of road fatalities this year in this period compared to last year has unfortunately hardly decreased. These data came from an analysis by the traffic-related IT agency VIA and figures from the police. These figures are not yet final. According to their research, 62 people died in traffic this year between March 16 and April 26. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, 65 people died in traffic during the same period.

VIA researcher Erik Donkers says in the ONGOING radio 1 journaal: “It is a very special situation that we are now dealing with in traffic, we have really started to behave differently. We started cycling more, especially the elderly. In addition, the streets are empty, which is reason for some motorists to speed up ”.

According to the police and VIA, things still go wrong and people die because the circumstances are now different than normal. Now that it is quieter on the road, people pay less attention to traffic and many people drive faster. There are also more cyclists and motorcyclists on the road. There are also many more elderly people who go out with their electric bicycle because the catering, museums and theaters are closed. And more children are playing on the street because the schools are closed.

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