Car fatalities, driver training and licensing in European countries: A comparative study

We have compiled several statistics from the German institute database, IRTAD, and the United Nations database to present the variation of car fatalities with age in the European Union and other industrialized countries. This comparison reveals very important differences among countries concerning the whole population of drivers and in particular novice drivers. The rates are the lowest in the north of Europe (United Kingdom, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries), Japan, Israel, and some other European or Asian countries (like Georgia, Romania or Turkey). The rates are the highest in the ex-communist countries of Europe, the south of Europe (the Latin countries) and some European countries like Luxemburg, Belgium, Austria and the U.S.A. with a high density of traffic. We will try to explain some of these differences. A comparative study of British, German and French systems of access to car driving has been conducted by a FERSI(Federation of European Road Safety Institutes) working group and supported by the Transport Directorate of the European Union. The main initial objectives were first to describe the similarities and the differences between the three national systems, second to see if one initiative in one country would be worth to export to the other member states, and third to see what should be developed in the future to improve our systems. The main conclusion of the study was that the differences in the training and the licensing systems from one country to another do not seem to have a significant effect on young people overrisk. (author abst.