Road deaths: the offence does not reduce the number of victims. Reports have remained stable since 2016
Ten years after the new crime was introduced, there are still 3,000 victims. In 2025, 1,099 people were reported, but one in three fatal accidents has no counterpart
Ten years after the offence of vehicular homicide came into force (introduced by Law 41/2016), the number of reports of this type of offence has remained virtually constant. The figures provided to *Il Sole 24 Ore* on Monday by the Department of Public Security at the Ministry of the Interior allow us to assess the impact of the legislation: the ‘new’ Article 589-bis of the Criminal Code does not appear to have made a substantial contribution to road safety.
The number of fatalities remains broadly stable. Following the reform’s entry into force, after the increases recorded in 2017 and 2018, fatalities fell in 2019 and, in particular, during the pandemic years of 2020–2021, before rising again in 2022 and 2023, settling at 3,030 deaths in 2024. That is more than eight a day. The road fatality rate, standing at 51.4 deaths per million inhabitants (compared with the EU-27 average of 44.8), places our country in 19th place in the European rankings.
Next Thursday, the new Istat-ACI figures on road accidents in 2025 will be released: “According to the forecasts – says Silvia Frisina, vice-president of the Association of Families and Victims of Road Accidents – we expect a reduction in fatalities, thanks to improvements in technology and the introduction of ‘30s zones’ in many towns and cities, where 70 per cent of fatal or injury-causing accidents occur. However, the overall accident rate is not falling.”
From 2016 to 2025, at the same time, the number of reports of road homicides submitted to the judicial authorities by the police also showed a stable trend over time: 1,062 road homicides reported and 1,099 individuals named in 2025 (more than one person may be held responsible for the same incident), compared with 1,146 reports and 1,596 individuals named in 2016. The geographical distribution of the reports partly reflects the population size and traffic volumes of major urban areas: in 2025, there were 94 in Rome, followed by Bergamo and Milan with 37 each, then Naples (34) and Turin (28).
Ten years ago, Law 41/2016 marked one of the most far-reaching reforms of road traffic criminal law in recent decades. As well as introducing the offences of road traffic homicide and causing injury into the Criminal Code, the legislature established a particularly severe system of penalties, providing for special aggravating circumstances for driving whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs, speeding and other serious breaches of the Highway Code. Furthermore, provisions have been tightened regarding hit-and-run offences, mitigating circumstances, assessments of impaired condition, personal precautionary measures and the system of additional penalties, which is based primarily on the revocation of driving licences (with very long waiting periods before a new licence can be obtained).
