The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published its 19th PIN annual report, analyzing the 20,017 deaths on EU roads in 2024. In this report, the ETSC again calls for periodic technical inspections for all motorcycles and mopeds without offering any proof of safety gains.

The ETSC recommends to extend testing to cover all motorcycles, including mopeds, without exemptions: as a minimum, first inspection after four years, subsequent inspections every two years, then every year after that. But more on that later, let’s look at the road safety numbers first.

The EU has set a target to halve the number of road deaths by 2030, based on their level in 2019. Most European countries have similar national targets. The 19th PIN report paints a mixed picture: clear progress in some countries, especially Norway and Lithuania, but overall European trends falling short. With only a 12% reduction in deaths since 2019, and serious injuries barely budging, the EU faces a critical juncture.

The Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme tracks road death and injury trends across 32 European and associated countries: the 27 EU member states, plus the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Israel, and Serbia. This is the 19th edition, marking the mid‑point of the EU’s 2020–2030 Road Safety Policy Framework which aims to halve both fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.

From 2019 to 2024, the EU27 achieved a 12% reduction in road deaths. To remain on track towards the 2030 target, a 27% reduction would have been required by 2024. In 2024, 20,017 road deaths were recorded across the EU27 (i.e., excluding Serbia, Norway, etc.).

Norway topped the 2025 PIN table with the lowest fatality rate: 16 deaths per million inhabitants in 2024. Sweden followed at around 20 deaths per million, then Denmark, Slovakia, and Ireland with similarly low rates per vehicle‑km traveled (data available for 23 countries). Lithuania achieved a 35% reduction in road deaths since 2019, the only country to halve that death toll in a decade. Belgium, Poland, and Slovenia also achieved over 25% cuts since 2019. Eight countries, including Switzerland and Estonia, recorded increases in road deaths in 2024 versus 2023. Since 2019, Switzerland saw worsening outcomes, trend echoed in some Eastern European countries.

The report’s recommendations to governments: fully adopt the Safe System approach, with shared responsibilities across system designers and users, assess and strengthen existing national strategies, ensuring measurable targets and effective implementation, and enhance enforcement, especially automated systems like speed and red‑light cameras.

The report’s recommendations to EU institutions: embed the Safe System approach across all European Commission directorates, consider establishing a new EU road safety agency to coordinate safe, smart and sustainable road transport, and ensure equitable access to vehicle data for legitimate public safety and policy analysis.

Norway received the 2025 PIN Award for its exemplary road safety performance in 2024, the lowest death rate per million of any monitored country. Notable Norwegian initiatives include its Vision Zero National Plan (2022–2025) with 179 measures across 15 priority areas, aiming for fewer than 50 annual fatalities by 2030 and zero by 2050, the launch of the BEST research programme focused on evidence-based evaluations, legislative reforms requiring mandatory autopsies and crash investigations for fatalities, youth‑oriented programmes, including stricter training, double‑penalty point systems, and communication campaigns, local innovations like school car‑free zones. Norway’s success is attributed to strong political commitment, intelligent data‑driven strategies, and integrated national‑local coordination.

Some key messages from the PIN report:

• The current trajectory is insufficient; with fatalities and serious injuries decreasing too slowly, the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 goals.
• Safe System principles must be fully embedded for speed control, infrastructure design, vehicle technology, and road user behaviour.
• National strategies must align with EU policy and constitutional targets, and upcoming legislative revisions need to reflect safety priorities.
• Political will and public support are essential: successful countries like Norway demonstrate the importance of ambition, transparency, and community engagement.

FEMA: ‘Maybe nobody should include a mandatory PTI in ‘evidence-based measures’ to improve road safety as long as there is no proof of a robust benefit or safety gain.’

Comments by FEMA’s General Secretary Wim Taal, who attended the ETSC conference in Brussels:

“The annual ETSC conference is an important event for everyone involved in road safety. It does not just give us all the available data, it also helps you to understand the causation of accidents. I do however have a problem with how some of the possible meausures to reduce road traffic casualties were formulated. For example, in their speeches, both ETSC Executive Director Antonio Avenoso and EU Road Safety Coordinator Kristian Schmidt emphasized the need for ‘evidence-based measures’, but when it comes to their wish to introduce periodic technical inspections for all motorcycles and mopeds across the European Union, they offer no relevant evidence. So maybe nobody should include a mandatory PTI in ‘evidence-based measures’ to improve road safety as long as there is no robust benefit or safety gain quantified in publicly available EU research.”

“FEMA strongly opposes any EU‑wide harmonisation that mandates periodic technical inspections (PTI) for motorcycles and mopeds, stressing their marginal impact on road safety. FEMA maintains that technical defects are responsible for only a very small fraction (at most about 1%) of motorcycle accidents. European datasets (including MAIDS and SaferWheels) corroborate this low threshold of defect-related crashes. The European Commission’s SaferWheels study finds that vehicle defects rarely contribute to serious accidents and does not support mandatory PTI for motorcycles. It advises that safety improvements are better targeted at behaviour, enforcement, technology, and infrastructure, not inspection. FEMA argues that training, rider behaviour, motorcyclist-friendly infrastructure, and enforcement have far greater impact on reducing accidents.”

Written by Wim Taal

Source: ETSC

Top photograph: AI generated