http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redac...affic%2Bdeaths

Thu 29/01/09 17:20 (UPDATE video) - The number of traffic fatalities
in Belgium dropped spectacularly last year, according to preliminary
statistics for 2008. The data is based on figures from December 2007
to November 2008 and compared with the same period of the year prior.

The number of people who died in traffic accidents in 2008 was
dramatically lower compared to the year before, and that year there
was already a stagnation with 1,067 deaths.
(Belga)

From 1 December 2007 to 30 November 2008, 857 people died in the
traffic. This is 120 fewer than in the same period the year before.

"We notice a significant decrease - about 12 percent," says Werner De
Dobbeleer of the Belgian Institute for Traffic Safety.

The positive figures were already seen in March and April and trend
continued through the year. Werner De Dobbeleer is pleased with the
trend and remarks, "You have to go way back in the years to find such
a dramatic decrease."

There is not immediately an explanation for the decrease in traffic
deaths. "Many factors are at play here. We notice that the Belgians
are slowly but surely changing their driving behaviour. They are
starting to drive slower because of the presence of more unmanned
cameras and more people are wearing seatbelts."

The authorities are very pleased with the trend. In 2001 more than
1400 people died in traffic accidents in Belgium. The aim is to scale
traffic fatalities back to less than 500 by the year 2015.