Europe's mixed road safety record

Figures published to mark Europe's first Road Safety Day show big gaps between European states, according to a report last week by the BBC.

In 2006, the Baltic states had more than three times as many road deaths per head of population than the top performers - Sweden, Holland and Malta.

And while France, Luxembourg and Portugal have cut road deaths by more than 40% since 2001, in four countries the situation has got worse.

The UK has a low death rate but has made little progress since 2001.

The figures indicate that the EU is not on target to meet its goal to halve road deaths from nearly 50,000 in 2001, to 25,000 by 2010.

Road travel in the EU is most dangerous in Greece and the Central and Eastern European countries. Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and Estonia had more road deaths in 2006 than 2001 - possibly a reflection of a rapid increase in the number of cars on the road.

Within Western Europe, northern countries tend to be safer than southern countries. An exception to the rule is Malta, which has the lowest number of road deaths per million inhabitants, and per million cars.

For the full story go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk