German Road Safety Trends: Off Track for 2030

Traffic on the A7 motorway in northern Germany
File photo: the A7 motorway near Bönningstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, 2010. Photo: Huhu Uet via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
Off track for 2030Updated 6 October 2026

Trend summary

  • German roads are far safer than a generation ago, but progress has stalled: road deaths have hovered around 2,800 a year since 2022, well above the path needed for the national goal of 40% fewer deaths by 2030.
  • 2,832 people died on German roads in 2025, 62 more than in 2024, while the number seriously injured fell to 49,200, the lowest since 1991 (Destatis, final figures).
  • The first half of 2026 looks better: 1,233 deaths from January to June, 9% fewer than a year earlier (provisional).
  • The growth is on two wheels: 462 cyclists were killed in 2025, 217 of them on pedelecs (e-bikes), and e-scooter accidents with casualties rose 38.1%.
2,832road deaths, Germany, 2025 (final, Destatis)
1,233road deaths, January to June 2026 (provisional, down 9%)
462cyclists killed, Germany, 2025, including 217 on pedelecs
16,496e-scooter accidents with casualties, Germany, 2025 (up 38.1%)

What the numbers show

The Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt, or Destatis) counts every road accident recorded by the police in Germany. Its final figures for 2025 (in German) show 2,832 deaths, up from 2,770 in 2024 and about the same as the 2,839 of 2023. That is eight deaths a day. Around 371,000 people were injured, 49,200 of them seriously, and the police recorded 2.52 million accidents, most of which caused only damage. The long-run fall is large: about 9,500 people were killed in 1995, and the toll reached a record low of 2,562 in 2021, when the pandemic kept traffic down. Since then it has climbed back and stayed near 2,800.

The first half of 2026 (in German) brought 1,233 deaths, 122 fewer than in the same period of 2025, with fewer pedestrians (150), cyclists (211), car occupants (531) and motorcyclists (216) killed. E-scooters were the exception: 28 riders died, up from 15. These figures are provisional, and Destatis now publishes road accident press releases only for half-year and full-year results; the monthly numbers stay on its website. Where people die differs sharply from where crashes happen: three in four accidents are in towns, but 56% of deaths in 2025 were on rural roads (Landstraßen), 34% in built-up areas and 10% on motorways (Autobahnen).

What is driving it

Speed is still the leading cause of fatal crashes. In 2025, 812 people, 29% of all road deaths, died in crashes where a driver exceeded the limit or drove too fast for the conditions; on motorways the share was 42%. Alcohol was involved in about 34,800 accidents, one every 15 minutes, and 170 deaths. Rural roads combine high speeds with oncoming traffic, poor overtaking and roadside trees, which is why the federal transport ministry made them the focus of its second national road safety conference in April 2026, and why the German Road Safety Council (Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat, DVR) warns (in German) that the 40% reduction target of the federal road safety programme 2021–2030, Germany’s Vision Zero plan, is now hard to reach.

The other shift is who is dying. Destatis reports that one in six road deaths in 2025 was a cyclist (in German): 462 people, 20.6% more than in 2015, while total road deaths fell 18.4% over the same period. The rise comes from pedelecs, whose rider deaths grew from 36 in 2015 to 217 in 2025. Older riders are most at risk: 61.5% of cyclists killed, and 67.3% of pedelec riders killed, were 65 or older. E-scooters are a smaller but fast-growing problem; police recorded 16,496 e-scooter accidents with casualties (in German) in 2025, and 38 people died in them, more than half of the injured riders being under 25. Child casualties also rose: 74 children under 15 were killed (in German) in 2025, up from 53.

Recent cases

  • 27 September 2026: a coach carrying 33 passengers to the Oktoberfest overturns on the A96 motorway in Landsberg district, Bavaria, killing two people and seriously injuring eight; police are investigating the driver for negligent homicide (BR24, in German).
  • 24 September 2026: Destatis reports 1,233 road deaths in the first half of 2026, 9% fewer than a year earlier, but more e-scooter riders killed and more children and teenagers injured (Destatis, in German).
  • 12 September 2026: after three motorcyclists die within days on the B500 Black Forest High Road in Baden-Württemberg, where four of 23 motorcycle crashes this year were fatal, police step up speed checks and local mayors call for new safety measures (SWR, in German).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from German federal and state government agencies, regulators, accident investigators and national statistics; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Many official releases are published only in German; for those we give an English translation of the title and mark the link (in German). Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

2026

2025

2024

2023

View 20 years of major German road crash press releases (2007–2026)73 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

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2021

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2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

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Some early years list fewer than five items. Many older German government releases are no longer online at their original addresses, and we only list items we could find and check.

Photo list

A white-painted ghost bike memorial on a Berlin street
A white “ghost bike” memorial on Frankfurter Allee, Berlin, for a cyclist killed in 2021. Photo: Singlespeedfahrer via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
A protected cycle lane separated from traffic in Berlin
File photo: a protected cycle lane on Tempelhofer Damm, Berlin, 2023. Photo: Nakaner via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. German statistics are often published separately by each federal state (Land) and some only in German, so we say which area and period each figure covers and translate titles. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.