Filenews 9 December 2025 - by Michalis Chatzivasilis
8% of road deaths in the last three years involved drivers at work, which translates into three deaths per year.
These figures are included in the 49th report of the European Transport Safety Board's (ETSC) Road Safety PIN programme, which is released today. The report presents data in the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU), as well as Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Serbia and the United Kingdom, on road deaths and serious work-related injuries.
According to the data provided by the representative of Cyprus to the program, Giorgos Morfakis, during the three-year period 2022-2024, three people lost their lives per year, in road collisions while working. These people were mostly couriers of ready-to-eat food (delivery men) or drivers of trucks or other means of transporting goods. As recorded in the report, because there is no common definition of work-related road collision, the exact number of victims on the roads cannot be determined. From data provided by 16 European countries, 30-40% of all road deaths are work-related. Based on this figure, annual work-related road deaths in the EU are likely to be between 6,000 and 8,000.
It is noted that 10 countries participating in the PIN program do not yet have a national definition for work-related road collisions and these include Cyprus. It is also noted that in 16 states participating in the PIN, there is no field in the Police form with the details of road collisions, for the purpose of trafficking and these states also include Cyprus.
However, as far as the relevant legal obligations of employers and self-employed workers are concerned, Cyprus responds positively, along with 18 other states. Cyprus, along with 10 other states, also responds positively to the procedures followed by the state for the purchase, lease and rental of vehicles.
However, given the lack of coordinated action and major gaps in any efforts, the ETSC considers that the problem of road deaths and serious work-related injuries is not being given due attention by the EU, but also by the governments of the Member States. The ETSC therefore makes a number of recommendations concerning:
• Adopt a national definition of work-related road collision within the field of road safety, covering road fatalities and serious injuries between professional road users and road workers, commuters to and from work and third parties, covering all groups of road users.
• Collect and analyze comprehensive data on the number of road deaths and serious injuries on an annual basis.
• Creation of a system for the interconnection of data from the reports of medical examiners, from the reports on Health and Safety at Work and the road safety services, in order to ascertain the true picture of deaths from work-related road collisions.
• Imposing an obligation on employers to adopt the Safe System approach in their work-related road safety activities.
• Support and encourage employers in fulfilling the requirements for carrying out a work-related road risk assessment.
