ROAD deaths are maintaining a decline over last year with 95 people killed in 90 crashes since the start of the year reflecting double-figure decline over the same period last year.

Traffic fatalities have been trending downwards over the last four years, moving from 381 in 2006 to 350 in 2007, 343 in 2008 and 341 in 2009.

The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) said that when it started operation in 1993 there were 400 deaths per year.

Two years ago the road safety agency launched the below 300 campaign — a multimedia, multi-function effort to keep fatalities under 300.

In its first year the NRSC missed its target, registering 343 deaths, then last year a total 341 people were killed in 295 fatal collisions.

The NRSC says that it is hoping to have another reduction by year-end.

However, despite the overall downward trend, the NRSC and the Transport Ministry’s Road Safety Unit (RSU) are voicing concern about the high level of pedestrian deaths.

“Pedestrians, with 40 killed so far this year, represent 42 per cent of the total fatalities,” a RSU representative said yesterday.

According to the RSU, its focus on sensitising schoolchildren on road use is paying off and additional efforts will be made to urge proper use of the road by pedestrians at large.

At the end of April last year 11 children were killed in crashes compared to eight killed over the same period in 2010, according to RSU data.

The majority of children fatalities were pedestrians.