This figure is still above most European Union countries, so there is no reason to be proud, said Alberts Krūmiņš, Deputy Head for Qualification of the Riga Customer Service Centre of the Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD), in the Latvian Radio program "How to Live Better".
According to CSDD statistics, this year until the second half of August there were fewer road fatalities than in previous years.
It is hoped that this year as a whole could also be significant with the lowest number of people killed on the roads, but, of course, this cannot be known yet, Krūmiņš said.
"As they say, one should not throw ashes on top of oneself, but there is nothing to be proud of either. We still have to move forward on this path," said Krūmiņš.
Why do other countries succeed in reducing road deaths, but Latvia is lagging behind? Compared to neighboring countries such as Estonia, Latvia has more lenient rules and traffic regulations, says Jānis Vanks, director of the Safe Driving School and a racing driver.
"Estonia made good moves on road safety a long, long time ago. It has to do with everything, both the speed limit and the fact that we have a lot of tolerances in general traffic. We have that accepted conditional norm of +10 kilometers per hour, we have [allowed] 0.5 blood alcohol, we have some other things that you can interpret in your way. Different people perceive it differently and use it differently," said Vanks
In Estonia, as Vanks has observed, this is not the case, where speed cameras already issue a fine at two kilometers per hour over the limit, and the intoxication limit is also 0.2 permille.
In Lithuania, on the other hand, cameras to control average speeds have managed to calm traffic on many stretches of road that were previously very dangerous, he said. Such cameras are being installed in increasing numbers in Latvia every year, says Vanks.
