Railway deaths in the EU fall in 2024 after years of fluctuating trends

Credit: eurostat

In 2024, the number of people killed in railway accidents across the EU fell to 750, marking a 10.8% decrease compared with 841 deaths in 2023. This follows two consecutive years of increases, after a steady declining trend from 2014 to 2019, when fatalities fell by around 22%. By the end of 2021, another sharp decrease of almost 15% compared with 2019 had been recorded. Reductions in railway accidents, fatalities, and serious injuries in 2020 and 2021 coincided with a sharp drop in rail passenger transport caused by the global pandemic.

Almost two thirds of the 2024 fatalities involved unauthorised persons on the tracks, accounting for 65.6% of deaths. Level-crossing users made up the second largest group at 25.5%, followed by railway employees at 3.7%, the category ‘others’ at 3.1%, and railway passengers at 2.1%.

Source dataset: tran_sf_railvi. Credit: eurostat

Poland recorded the highest number of railway fatalities in 2024 with 163 deaths, followed by Germany with 142 and Romania with 65. At the other end of the scale, Luxembourg and Slovenia recorded no fatalities, Estonia and Ireland each recorded one, and Finland and Latvia recorded four.

Suicides on railway premises are reported separately and consistently outnumber accidental fatalities. In 2024, there were 2,357 suicides, down 9.6% from 2,608 in 2014. Germany recorded the highest number with 688, followed by France with 267 and the Netherlands with 186. The lowest numbers were observed in Lithuania with none, Greece with one, and Estonia with four.

This data, published by Eurostat, highlights both ongoing safety improvements in rail transport and the continuing challenge posed by unauthorised access and suicides on railway infrastructure. It underscores the importance of targeted safety measures, public awareness campaigns, and infrastructure enhancements to further reduce accidents and fatalities across the EU.