Over half of fatal accidents that occurred on Belgian motorways in 2021-2022 took place near an entrance or exit ramp (slip lane), the VIAS road safety institute announced on Thursday.
As part of its new statistical analysis, the VIAS institute analysed 151 fatal motorway accidents involving 483 people. The results revealed a fatal dynamic of accidents on Belgian motorways.
"In Belgium, more than a third (38%) of kilometres travelled by all vehicles are on the motorway. The risk of accidents is lower there than on the rest of the road network, but the seriousness of these accidents is much higher," the VIAS Institute noted. "Indeed, there are 31 killed per 1,000 bodily accidents on the motorway – 3 to 4 times more than in urban areas."
One in ten fatal accidents occurred on an entrance or exit ramp, while more than four in ten occurred in the immediate vicinity of a ramp. In total, more than half (54%) happened on or near an exit ramp. This means that the risk of accidents in these locations is very high. Another 3% of accidents occurred at an interchange.
VIAS also notes that nearly a fifth (21%) of fatal accidents occurred when it was dark when street lights were on, and one in six (13%) crashes happened in the dark, when no street lights were turned on. As such, 34% of all fatal accidents took place in dark conditions.
The percentage of fatal accidents at night, between 22:00 and 06:00, is much higher on the motorway (25%) than on other types of road (19%).
Deadly dynamics
Despite the fact that motorways are meant to be separated and protected from other roads, one in ten road users killed in motorway accidents are still pedestrians. The risk of death for pedestrians involved in this kind of accident is obviously very high, around 29%. In cars, the death rate is just 1.4%.
In Belgium, 22% of drivers involved in an accident on the motorway are from a foreign country, but this statistic is much higher for truck drivers, where over half (57%) were driving foreign-registered vehicles.
Statistically, Belgium's most fatal motorways, excluding Brussels, are in East Flanders, where there were 73 fatalities per 100 km of motorway. Wallonia's most dangerous roads are in Hainault, with 64 accidents per 100 km.
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"This statistical analysis clearly highlights the dangerousness of places on the motorway where users interact with each other or have to suddenly change direction, such as interchanges or motorway exits," the study concludes.
The authors encourage the authorities to install a white dividing line between the first and second lane on exit and entrance ramps with high traffic density. They also advocate for the installation of more speed cameras on ramps to detect the crossing of these white lines.
