Each year they kill 23,500 people, half the total of road fatalities and 3,500 more than are killed in other homicides.

In come cases, thieves whose sign-removal lead to road fatalities have been charged with manslaughter.

And although road fatalities are down over all, those involving heavy trucks are fairly level, at more than 5,000 a year.

I will mention three important ways of reducing the number of road fatalities.

Estimated figures for 2004 reveal that there were 43 000 road fatalities in Europe.

It is not helpful in terms of prevention to know the overall number of road fatalities.

The figure of 8 000 relates to road fatalities in the most vulnerable group: pedestrians and cyclists.

The effects of seat belt laws are disputed by those who observe that their passage did not reduce road fatalities.

Between 1930 and 1935 the number of annual road fatalities dropped from 7,305 to 6,502.

Between 1935 and 1940 the number of annual road fatalities increased from 6,502 to 8,609.