According to the Central Bureau for Statistics (Centraal Bureeau voor de Statistiek, CBS), in the Netherlands, 675 people died in a traffic accident last year, among them 246 cyclists. Almost half of them (44%) rode an electric bicycle, and most (60%) died from head injuries.

Cyclists form the largest group of road fatalities. It mainly concerns elderly people over 80 years old. This is a shift from 25 years ago, when most fatal traffic victims were young people between the ages of 20 and 30. The good news is that slightly fewer fatal cycling victims were registered last year than in 2023, when there were 270.

Older victims

Most road fatalities in the Netherlands involve people aged 80 or older, followed by those in their seventies. The number of young people in the statistics has decreased. According to the CBS, it is much less common for young people to have accidents as occupants of a passenger car or as drivers of a moped.

The number of passenger car occupants killed in traffic rose slightly from 194 in 2023 to 220 last year. In 43 percent of the cases, this happened due to a collision with another car, a van, truck or bus. Almost half of these accidents (40%) were collisions with a ‘fixed object’, or so-called ‘single-vehicle accidents.’

Sharp decline in fatalities

However, compared to 2000, when more than 500 people died in a car, there has been a sharp decline. Fewer motorists are killed in traffic, perhaps because cars have become safer and traffic rules stricter.

The number of moped and scooter riders who have died in a traffic accident has never been so low in the last 25 years. In 2024, 30 people died in traffic accidents involving a moped, compared to 104 in 2000.

Since 2010, the number of road deaths has not decreased any further. This shows that attention to road safety remains necessary. “Every traffic victim is one too many,” Evert-Jan Hulshof, director of Veilig Verkeer Nederland, concludes.