Major fall in Balearic road deaths

Regional Traffic chief, Antonio Femenia confirmed that the six deaths recorded this year on Majorca alone, were half the number which had lost their lives in the year to date in 2008.

The islands of Ibiza and Formentera have reported one person dying in a road accident so far this year whilst there were five people who lost their lives in the first three months of 2008.

Numbers for those injured on the roads have also come down - as at today's date, three people were hurt in accidents on Majorca and two on Minorca. These amount to four less than for the same dates in 2008 when there were nine injured throughout the Balearics. Of those who have died this year, only one person was less than 30 years of age, whilst in 2008 nine people in this age group lost their lives. The victim under 30 this year was a 7-year-old boy who died in the early hours of last Friday morning after being a passenger in a car involved in a head-on collision on the road between Campos and Colonia Sant Jordi.

All eight people who have died this year were male, of whom five were drivers, two cyclists and one passenger. The Traffic department has said that three of these were over 65-years-old but that only four of the eight victims were wearing safety belts or crash helmets. Two of the total of eight were foreigners from other EU member states. Five of the accidents occurred at night and three during the day, whilst five of the vehicles involved in the eight accidents were over ten years-old. Between 2000 and 2008, 821 people have died on Balearic roads - 600 of them on Majorca. The highest toll was in 2001 when 123 people died.