Increase on the previous year

Five people were killed in Easter traffic this year

An 86-year-old pedestrian was hit by a dark Audi A5 in the Luftenberg district near Linz on Sunday afternoon and suffered fatal injuries. The hit-and-run driver has since been caught.

(Bild: APA/TEAM FOTOKERSCHI / KERSCHBAUMMAYR)

This year's Easter weekend traffic statistics are significantly worse than last year. From Good Friday to Easter Monday, five people died in Easter traffic accidents, three of them in Styria and two of them in Upper Austria, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Two road users died on Easter Sunday, three on Easter Monday. The fatalities involved two car drivers, a passenger in a car, a pedestrian and a moped driver.

On Easter Sunday, the 86-year-old pedestrian and her husband had been crossing a main road in the district of Perg within a 70 km/h speed limit as part of a walk, when she was hit and fatally injured by a 28-year-old car driver under the influence of drugs. The 28-year-old hit-and-run driver was caught by the police a short time later. In the Braunau district, a 15-year-old moped rider also died on Easter Sunday after a collision with a car.

Couple killed by falling tree
In Styria, an elderly couple were killed by a falling tree while driving their car in Ilz (Hartberg-Fürstenfeld district) on Easter Monday. 15 minutes later, a 59-year-old man's car collided with a tree ten kilometers away in the municipality of Breitenfeld an der Rittschein, killing the driver. According to the Ministry of the Interior, nine people died in road traffic accidents in the entire Easter week from March 25, 2024 up to and including Easter Monday.

The number of road deaths over the Easter weekend has therefore risen compared to previous years. From 2020 to 2022, four people died in road traffic accidents over the Easter weekend. In 2023, an 83-year-old pedestrian died on Easter Monday in Styria. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the lowest number of victims since the statistics were introduced in 1968 was recorded in 2013 and 2023 with one road fatality. By contrast, in 1976, the year with the highest number of fatalities to date, there were 39 road deaths over the Easter weekend.

In the course of increased traffic monitoring, 53,180 drivers were cited for exceeding the speed limit at Easter. In this context, the ministry spoke of a decrease of 7.9 percent compared to the previous year. A total of 303 drivers were reported for drunk driving, a decrease of 10.6 percent compared to the same period in 2023. A further 76 people had to be taken off the road by the police for driving under the influence of drugs, 29.6 percent fewer than in the previous year. In contrast, the police recorded an increase in driving license withdrawals: 5.7 percent more driving licenses were provisionally taken away. Four motor vehicles were also provisionally confiscated by the federal police at Easter as a result of extreme speeding.

53 road deaths so far this year
According to provisional figures from the Austrian Transport Association (VCÖ), 53 people lost their lives in road accidents in Austria 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 road deaths in the first quarter has fallen by almost a third this year to the second-lowest figure in the 21st century," said VCÖ expert Katharina Jaschinsky. Nevertheless, the 53 fatalities are a reminder to implement increased road safety measures, she said.