Let’s make our roads safer for all

Why is this important?

Cars and trucks crashing into animals not only often lead to the death of the animal  but can also cause serious human injuries as well as high financial costs.

While we build more and more roads across Europe, the number of such accidents is growing. In Spain, road accidents involving animals have doubled in just five years. [1] In Sweden, roadsides are turning into “animal graveyards” with over 10,000 reindeer killed just between 2018 and 2023. [2] Some species are being driven toward extinction because of road traffic. A 2020 study estimated that 194 million birds and 29 million mammals die annually on Europe’s roads. [3]

We could prevent many of these accidents if we improve our road infrastructure. Part of the solution is to create more wildlife crossings which allow animals to cross roads safely. 

Wildlife crossings help animals thrive by connecting separate areas of wild nature. It’s like building bridges between islands so animals can find food and mates, and grow their numbers. [4]

But wildlife crossings also make roads significantly safer for people. The introduction of wildlife bridges over busy roads makes collisions drop drastically. That means if there were originally 100 crashes, now there could be as few as 1 to 15. [5]

In its EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030, the European Commission has included a strong commitment to reduce deaths and serious injuries on EU roads by half by 2030 and to get close to zero deaths and serious injuries by 2050. [6] 

While the EU has worked to make our roads safer [7], it hasn't properly addressed accidents with animals, which threaten both animals and humans. Let’s push our representatives to treat this issue seriously and make our roads safer for all living beings!

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