The Burrow
Feb 28, 2025
Whether it’s checking your blind spots before merging, or carefully reversing into a narrow spot for the perfect parallel park, knowledge and understanding of road safety is something all of us can appreciate when driving.
Of course, being taught how to drive cautiously is only one part of road safety etiquette; the rest comes in the form of strict laws and regulations around highway codes, speed limits, and fines for those who might break them – be that accidentally or intentionally. And, as car insurance experts, we understand that the way you drive can have an impact on any claims you make, too.
Naturally, some countries in Europe and around the world have stricter traffic laws than others, but that begs the question – do tighter speed limits and higher fines result in safer roads?
To find out, we ranked 26 European countries for road safety, as well as all eight Australian states, and ranked them based on the strictness of their road laws compared to their road traffic mortality rate, all to see if there’s a correlation between greater levels of road safety and lower rates of death while driving.
Find out the results of our research below!
Beginning with our European ranking first, we’ve laid out the results for the top five best counties on the continent for road safety.
Placing first in our European ranking with a total score of 75.69, Norway has the highest road safety rating out of any European country we looked at, providing the lowest mortality rate overall (1.5 per 100,000) and the largest urban area fines for speeding at €944.
In fact, Norway has exceedingly high fines in all areas, with speeding drivers being charged €711 on country roads and highways alike (putting it first for these factors again), as well as the second highest fines for running a red light (€756) – just behind Estonia’s €800.
Interestingly, however, Norway only came 15th on our list for speed cameras per 100,000 at 5.1, the lowest of our top five, though given Norway’s low population of around 5,550,000, you could argue that this is more than enough.
Sticking in Scandinavia for our second-place country, Sweden’s overall road safety score of 72.96 only just puts it behind Norway, with the largest of the Nordic countries placing second for road mortality (2.1 per 100,000) and third for country road and highway fines at €300.
The high fine levels don’t stop there, with Sweden also placing fourth for red light fines at €314, and sixth for urban fines at €345, showing a lower, if similarly consistent degree of fining to Norway.
Where Sweden really stands out is in its use of speed cameras, taking the top spot for this factor with a whopping 24.4 cameras per 100,000!
Lastly, for our top three, we take a brisk step over the Baltic and into Finland, which, while still having safe roads, did receive a much lower total road safety score of 56.67 – that’s a full 16 points lower than Sweden!
So, why is this? After all, Finland has the second-highest number of speed cameras per 100,000 people at 20.2 (that’s four times the number for Norway despite having a similarly sized population), and the fourth-highest highway and country road fines at €260.
Well, even though Finland has high numbers of cameras and serious fines, their road traffic mortality rate is not stellar, with Finland ranking 11th on our list for this factor thanks to its score of 4.2 per 100,000. However, this does not necessarily mean that stricter traffic laws don’t reduce road deaths, as Finland’s weather is notorious for creating dangerous roads.
Finally moving out of Scandinavia and into the heartland of Europe, Switzerland managed to claim the fourth spot on our list with an overall road safety score of 52.30, largely in part to its high urban and country road speeding fines of €560 and €374 respectively (putting it second for both factors), and low road mortality rate of 2.4 per 100,000 (the fourth best overall).
Indeed, the only factors that stopped Switzerland from placing higher on our list are its lower levels of speed cameras per 100,000 at 7.2, alongside lower red-light fines of €234, which put it tenth and eighth in these categories – respectable positions in general but certainly lower than the countries in our top three spaces.
And to round out our top three, we have a country at the heart of the EU – Belgium – which earned itself a road safety score of 48.84 – a little less than Switzerland but still high in comparison to many other countries on our full ranking.
Overall, Belgium had the fifth highest speed cameras per 100,000 at 18.9 and consistent fines across the board, being ninth for country roads and highways (€153) and tenth for urban roads and red lights (€153 and €165 respectively). However, much like Finland, Belgium’s low road mortality rate of 4.6 per 100,000 (the highest of our top five) prevents it placing higher.
So, having examined how road safety strictness and mortality rates compare in Europe, how are things over here in Australia? Is one state better for road safety than the others, or are things equal across the board?
Well, as you can see below, most Australian states perform relatively well for road safety, with South Australia coming out on top as the safest place to drive in the country:
Indeed, South Australia would appear to be the safest state in the country for all drivers, with speeding tickets averaging $926 in general – $200 more than Queensland (which placed second), and a whopping $700 more than Tasmania’s $202 (the worst in this factor).
The good news for South Australia doesn’t stop there, as it also placed third for speed cameras per 100,000 with a score of 2, being only beaten by New South Wales’s 3 and Australian Capital Territories’ 4.1.
While it lacks many speed cameras, the Northern Territory does have the most red-light cameras at 8.7 per 100,000, just beating out South Australia’s 7.9.
Finally, and as you might expect, South Australia did very well for road traffic mortality rates, placing third with an excellent score of 3.9 per 100,000 – just 0.3 points behind Victoria and 0.4 points behind New South Wales.
The Northern Territory, on the other hand, has a staggeringly high road mortality rate of 18.7 per 100,000 – making it the highest out of all Australian states and European countries we looked at, and perhaps making it a cause for concern when you consider the Northern Territory only has an average population of 232,600 people!
Based on the data we collected with our survey, there’s a correlation between countries enforcing stricter traffic laws and higher speed fines in relation to lower road traffic mortality rates – in spite of certain countries in our top 5 having higher road deaths than you might think.
However, in the case of Finland, outside factors like weather and isolation certainly play a role in increasing road mortality, and a score of 4.2 is by no means excessive. And in terms of Australia’s Northern Territory, it could be argued that a lack of road safety measures plays a role in its high traffic mortality rates.
To further back this point, Tasmania ranked poorly overall, being the seventh worst Australian state for road safety. But even so, Tasmania’s mortality rate only sat at 8.9 per 100,000 – less than double that of the Northern Territories, and you could argue that Tasmania’s low fines and lack of cameras are to blame. Therefore, increasing them could lower mortality.
Compare the Market’s Executive General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor, notes the importance of safe driving for both your wellbeing and for your insurance cover.
“Dangerous and illegal driving puts not only yourself at risk, but put everyone around you at risk,” Mr Taylor notes.
“If you’re at fault for an accident and you’re found to have been driving dangerously or illegally, your car insurance cover will be typically cover the damages.
“This isn’t the case if alcohol is involved, in which your insurance will typically be voided and you will be required to pay damages out of pocket.
“For the sake of everyone on the road, it’s best to ensure you’re up-to-date on the road rules in your area and follow them.”
Regardless of the policy you are interested in, it’s important to look at the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) so that you understand any limits and exclusions.
Below are the different methodologies used to collect our European and Australian survey data:
This dataset ranks 26 European countries, based on how prevalent speed cameras are and their potential effectiveness of them.
To do this, 6 different factors were used. Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalized to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. If data was not available, a score of 0 was given.
The normalized values were then summed and multiplied by 10 to give each country a total score out of 100. The countries were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores.
The factors used were as follows:
The factors were then indexed as follows:
All data is correct as of 05/02/25. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate with regard to the sources provided.
This dataset ranks 8 Australian states/territories, based on how prevalent speed cameras are and the potential effectiveness of them.
To do this, 4 different factors were used. Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalized to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. If data was not available, a score of 0 was given.
The normalized values were then summed and multiplied by 25 to give each state/territory a total score out of 100. The states/territories were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores.
The factors used are as follows:
The factors were indexed as follows:
All data is correct as of 05/02/25. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate regarding the sources provided.