BERLIN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Traffic fatalities in Germany increased by 3 percent to a total of 3,275 in 2018, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Tuesday.
The total number of people injured in traffic accidents on German roads also increased and went up by 1.5 percent to 396,000, according to Destatis.
The increased road fatalities would be mainly attributable to the long summer last year, which led to a "long and intense season for motorcyclists and cyclists", Thomas Puls, senior economist for transport and infrastructure at the German Economic Institute (IW), told Xinhua.
While the number of car drivers and pedestrians in accidents declined, motorcyclists and cyclists were involved in "significantly more accidents with personal injuries as well as fatalities compared to 2017", stressed Puls.
Accidents on rural roads in Germany resulted in fatalities particularly often. While around a quarter of all accidents involving personal injury were recorded on Germany's rural roads, more than half of all fatal accidents in Germany happened on rural roads in 2018.
According to Destatis, the high share of accidents on rural roads would be due to higher speeds as well as a lack of separation from oncoming traffic, poor overtaking opportunities and obstacles such as trees next to the road.
