Nine hundred eighty four people died on Poland’s roads while travelling this summer throughout the country, down from 2008 by about 1,000.

Twelve thousand seven hundred seventy one people were injured in a total of 9,699 recorded traffic accidents. Police claim that the numbers show that road travel was safer this year than last, despite the high statistics.

Mariusz Sokolowski, spokesperson for the National Police, stated that the numbers relating to driving while intoxicated are still shockingly high.

“In the last weekend of vacation alone, we stopped 1,684 drunk drivers. While the number of accidents fell by about a thousand from last year, the number of non-sobre drivers we stopped is higher,” claimed Sokolowski.

Police statistics show that July was the most tragic month with 4,150 accidents, 457 people killed and 5,546 people injured. At the beginning of vacation – from the 19-30 June – 1,776 accidents occurred and 146 people were killed.

Sokolowski added that national police worked hard this year to avoid traffic accidents and more officers were stationed on roadsides on weekends throughout the summer controlling speed, sobriety and checking the technical state of vehicles and well as use of seatbelts. (mmj)