The European Commission published preliminary figures on Road safety in the EU, showing that  road fatalities in 2021 remain well below pre-pandemic level. EU-wide, road deaths in 2021 rose by 5% on the previous year, although comparisons with 2020 are strongly influenced by the traffic level patterns in each country during the course of the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of road fatalities fell by 17%.