When you count the fatalities per driven distance, the figures are in the same bracket. The traffic is much more intense in Europe and the drivers in general are less social. But it also pays off to have a good maintained road system and predictable lay-out. And the signage is less confusing. At least that is my conclusion after 50 year of driving in (mostly) western Europe and about 15 times around the equator (car, motorbike and bicycle combined) and 10 years in the USA. Zoom in on Google Earth and see the difference.Daryl wrote:...... Per capita is meaningless. Perhaps Europeans drive less, or don't even own cars as frequently. The stat would only be revealing if it were 1/3 of fatalities per mile compared to USA, but then Europeans use kilometres so even that wouldn't work.
With the economy improving and the communistic system gone for the eastern European countries, the numbers for Europe have gone down the drain. My numbers were from the top of my head so I checked the latest figures. For western Europe they still comply but the eastern European countries are in the same bracket as the USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... death_rate
The Netherlands have a good record. Above numbers are for 2016 so I was not on the road then.