In 2020, there were approximately 17 000 transport accidents with casualties. More than 250 people lost their life in these accidents: 227 in road traffic accidents, 17 in railway accidents and 8 in aviation accidents. For shipping, the only data available are on public shipping, where no fatalities were registered in 2020.
A historical comparison shows that among the main transport modes, the number of deaths has fallen markedly since the 1970s.
The danger of a fatal accident varies from one mode of transport to another. Railways are by far the safest with regard to distance covered: on average, in the past ten years (2010 to 2019) there was one death per 67.3 billion person-kilometres covered, i.e. 1.7 million orbits around the Earth. The passenger car is also a relatively safe mode of transport, whereas travel by bicycle and motorcycle is far more dangerous. If, however, the risk of death is measured not in terms of kilometres travelled but by the length of time travelled, the risk by bicycle is lowered considerably.