As of: March 28, 2024, 12:40 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
A wooden cross on a street commemorates the victim of a traffic accident. © Boris Roessler/dpa/Symbolbild
90 people died on Schleswig-Holstein's roads in 2023. This is the second lowest value since traffic statistics were introduced. However, some areas give police cause for concern.
Kiel - Fewer people died in accidents on Schleswig-Holstein's roads last year. “90 traffic deaths in one year mean the second lowest value in the traffic statistics of the Schleswig-Holstein state police,” said Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack (CDU) on Thursday when presenting the traffic safety report for 2023. That was twelve fewer than in 2022. Only during Corona pandemic, the number of people killed was lower at 77.
However, the number of accidents rose by 6.6 percent to 88,676. 15,258 people were injured - 677 more than in 2022.
The police are currently particularly concerned about the increase in accidents involving electric scooters from 92 cases in 2020 to 543 recently. The number of injuries reached a new high of 461, an increase of almost a quarter compared to 2022 (371). The main causes of accidents were incorrect road use and the influence of alcohol or drugs. The same blood alcohol limits apply to electric scooters as when driving a car and not as to bicycles. “After consuming alcohol, the e-scooter is not an alternative to driving a car,” said the minister.
The police are critical of the partial legalization of cannabis from April. Driving under the influence of THC has more serious consequences in accidents, as studies from the USA and Canada have shown, said Police Director Thomas Weißenberg. “We view this with at least a certain amount of concern.” However, increased controls are not planned for the coming week. “We will do this gradually over the course of the year.” There have already been 251 accidents under the influence of narcotics in 2023, 7 more than in 2022.
The number of illegal car races has increased in the country. The police registered 201 prohibited motor vehicle races (2022: 195). “But we don’t have any hotspots for meetings of the relevant scene that gathers for these car races,” said Weißenberg.
The police have recorded an increase in accidents involving e-bikes, so-called pedelecs. 1,486 people had accidents last year, 3.8 percent more than the previous year. Ten of them died. That was a new high, said Chief Police Director Ralph Garschke. Seven people who died were over 80 years old. The number of accidents with conventional bicycles remained almost constant at 3,706 (2022: 3,700). Four people died as a result of an accident (2022: 7).
There was a peak in accidents involving freight vehicles in 2023. They rose by 13.7 percent to 2,846 cases. 18 people were killed, including only one person in a truck. 199 people were seriously injured and 1,406 were slightly injured.
However, the number of accidents involving children has fallen to 1,183 cases (2022: 1,232). A child died (2022: 2). 78 suffered serious injuries (minus 27.8 percent) and 1,125 suffered minor injuries (minus 4.5 percent). The risk of children having accidents in cars is still too often underestimated, warned Sütterlin-Waack. She appealed: “Only take children with you in your vehicles in the prescribed restraints and therefore securely! This also and especially applies to the so-called parent taxis, where due to the change of vehicles and passengers, the appropriate restraint devices are not always taken into account.” dpa