The number of road accidents and fatalities continues to decline in Italy but the country is still far from the European Union target of reducing highway deaths by 50% by 2010, according to data from national statistics bureau Istat.
Looking at 2005, Istat calculated that every day an average of 617 road accidents took place in Italy, resulting in the deaths of 15 people, while another 860 suffered injuries.
By the end of the year, there were 225,078 accidents which cost the lives of 5,426 people with 313,727 suffering injuries.
This represented a 1.8% reduction in accidents, a 4.7% drop in fatalities and 2.7% decline in injuries over the previous year, Istat pointed out.
Despite the fact that 266 lives were saved last year, Italy is still far from meeting its EU goal of 3,100 road fatalities a year.
After rising steadily from 1991 to 2002, the number of highway accidents and injuries has been progressively declining, especially following the introduction of a points system for driving licenses.
Under the new system, drivers are allotted 20 points from which points are deducted for violations of road laws. Drivers must take special driver education courses to make back the points or risk losing their driving privilege.
