The traffic figures for the Easter weekend are significantly worse this year than last year. Five people were killed in Easter traffic from Good Friday to Easter Monday, three in Styria and two in Upper Austria, the Interior Ministry said. Two road users died on Easter Sunday and three on Easter Monday. The dead included two drivers, a passenger, a pedestrian and a moped driver.
On Easter Sunday, the 86-year-old pedestrian with her husband crossed a federal highway at a speed of 70 km/h while walking in the Perg district and was hit by a 28-year-old driver under the influence of drugs and fatally injured. The 28-year-old committed a collision, but was tracked down by the police a short time later. A 15-year-old moped rider also died in the Braunau district on Easter Sunday after a collision with a car.
Couple killed by falling tree
In Styria, an elderly couple was killed by a falling tree while driving their car in Ilz (Hartberg-Fürstenfeld district) on Easter Monday. Fifteen minutes later in the municipality of Breitenfeld an der Rittschein, ten kilometers away, a 59-year-old’s car collided with a tree, killing the driver. According to the Ministry of the Interior, nine people died in traffic accidents during the entire Easter week from March 25, 2024 to Easter Monday.
The number of traffic fatalities over the Easter weekend has increased compared to previous years. From 2020 to 2022, four people were killed in traffic during the Easter weekend. In 2023, an 83-year-old pedestrian died in Styria on Easter Monday. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the lowest number of victims since the introduction of statistics was recorded in 1968, with one road death in 2013 and 2023. In the most dramatic year to date, 1976, there were 39 road deaths over the Easter weekend.
53 road traffic deaths so far this year
According to preliminary figures from the Austrian Transport Club (VCÖ), 53 people died in road accidents in Austria this year in the first three months of the year. The VCÖ thus recorded a decrease of 30 percent compared to the previous year. “The number of traffic fatalities in the first quarter fell by almost a third this year to the second lowest figure in the 21st century,” says VCÖ expert Katharina Jaschinsky. The 53 fatalities are nevertheless a reminder to implement increased road safety measures, the report said.
Source: Krone
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