Prague - Turn of the year death toll, which includes New Year's Eve (Silvestr in Czech after the name in calendar) and New Year's Day, was the highest in the last five years.
On the last day of 2007 three people died on Czech roads. There was no fatal accident on the New Year's Day, according to preliminary reports.
If we take into account only the New Year's Eve, the 2007 New Year's Eve was the most tragic in the past eight years. Only in 1999 there were more fatal car accidents - four.
Preliminary data
It is the last day of a year when everyone is celebrating that traffic police consider as the most critical.
Turn of the year fatalities
- 1997/98: 13
- 1998/99: 2
- 1999/00: 6
- 2000/01: 2
- 2001/02: 3
- 2002/03: 5
- 2003/04: 2
- 2004/05: 2
- 2005/06: 1
- 2006/07: 3
- 2007/08: 3
The number of fatalities for 2007 New Year's Eve may still get higher, since the Police Headquarters published only preliminary data that do not include people which die from serious injury after being taken to hospitals.
At the turn of the year seventeen people were injured twelve at the New Year's Eve and five at the New Year's Day.
2007 car crash fatalities higher than 2006
According to Police Headquarters´ preliminary data more than 1100 people died on the road in 2007, which is by 150 people more than in 2006.
The year 2006 reported 956 fatalities in car accidents, the smallest number since 1989. That year a new system based on penalization points was introduced and fines for traffic violations toughened.
However the threat of stricter fines has lost its power in the course of time and the number of tragic car crashes has been on the rise again.
In spite of the car crash fatality increase on the year before the year 2007 was still marked by the second lowest death toll since 1989.
