A total of 650 people died in traffic accidents in the Netherlands last year, 11 less than in 2011, the CBS has revealed.

Decrease in deaths among young people

The most notable decrease in deaths on the roads came within the category of 15-20 year-olds. Sixteen fewer in this age group died last year compared with the toll in 2011. Since 2006 the number of young people dying in traffic accidents has more than halved.

Notable increases in traffic deaths have come from the 20-60 age category where 156 drivers and passengers lost their lives on the roads in 2012, as compared to 137 in 2011. The number of deaths among cyclists in the 60 to 80-year-old age group has also risen by 18 since 2011.

North Brabant remains most dangerous province of the Netherlands

With the most extensive road system in the Netherlands, North Brabant has traditionally been the province where the most traffic fatalities occur. Mercifully, however, the toll has dropped since 2011, as it has also done in Groningen and Zeeland.

In the eastern part of the Netherlands the death toll on the roads has increased, but the overall picture is positive: since the record death toll in 1972 traffic fatalities has decreased by 80 percent.