Driving in Luxembourg is just as deadly as in France, more dangerous than in Germany but safer than in Belgium, according to an international report. Those comparisons were illustrated by the “Roads Kill Map”, produced by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit news organisation based in Washington.

The figures are not new. They came from the World Health Organization’s “Global status report on road safety 2013” report using 2010 data.

The Grand Duchy’s 32 deaths that year was the equivalent of 6.3 deaths per 100,000 people. France recorded 3,992 deaths for a rate of 6.4 deaths per 100,000. Germany reported 4.7 traffic fatalities per 100,000, while Belgium’s rate was 8.1.

For comparison, the figures in both the UK (3.7) and Ireland (4.7) were lower than for all the Greater Region countries, but the rate in the US (11.4%) was higher.

However, as with many international comparisons, figures for the Grand Duchy are skewed by the roughly 152,000 cross-border commuters who work in Luxembourg but live in the three neighbouring countries; their road accidents going to and from work would be included in the duchy’s deaths report but they are not part of the resident population.

Fewer fatal motorcycle, pedestrian accidents

Nonetheless, driving on two wheels and crossing streets appeared to be comparatively safer in the Grand Duchy than elsewhere in the Greater Region. Motorcycles accounted for 3.1% of road deaths in Luxembourg compared to 17.2% in Belgium, 19.4% in Germany and 23.9% in France. (The rates were 8% in Ireland and 21.7% in the UK.)

Pedestrian deaths in Luxembourg were roughly one-third those in neighbouring nations (and one-sixth the rate in Ireland and the UK).

The safest place to hit the road? Sweden “had only 266 road fatalities in 2010, a rate of 3 deaths per 100,000 citizens, the lowest among industrialized nation,” the report said. The worst country covered was Iran, with 34 traffic deaths per 100,000 people.