Press release No. 230 of 6 July 2017
WIESBADEN – In 2016 the number of traffic accidents reached a new record high. Based on final results of the statistics of traffic accidents, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the police recorded roughly 2.6 million road traffic accidents, which was 2.7% more than in 2015. Nonetheless, the number of people who died in 2016 was the lowest ever recorded since the survey was first conducted in 1953. The total number of traffic accident fatalities was 3,206, which was a decline of 253 or 7.3% on 2015. Compared with 1970, the worst year in this respect (21,332 fatalities), this was a decrease of 85%. Nevertheless, an average of nine people died in road traffic each day in 2016. A total of 396,666 road users were injured in 2016, which was an increase of 0.8% compared with 2015.