Escorca claims top accident rate

THE Majorcan municipality of Escorca has the highest average vehicle accident rate in the Balearics, with 50 per 1'000 head of population, whilst the lowest is registered in Inca where there are less than 9 per 1'000 residents per year, the Local Police report for 2009 confirmed yesterday.

Escorca continues as the municipality with the highest annual accident rates, said the report, with Capdepera in second place registering 30 accidents per 1'000 head of population per year, followed in third place by Valldemossa with 24.

Manacor, apparently has more than 20 per year per 1'000 residents, whilst the municipality of Ciutadella on Minorca has an average of 19 per 1'000 per annum. Alcudia has 17, and whilst much lower down the list, Ibiza, Puigpunyent, Muro, Mahon, Campos and Son Servera all have an average of around 15 accidents per 1'000 residents per annum.

In general, the areas where the highest accident rates per inhabitant are recorded (a rate higher than 12 for every 1'000 residents) are those which are urban and heavily built up, such as is the case with Palma and the whole of the residential and main road areas which stretch through Calvia, Llucmajor linking up with the eastern and northeast part of Majorca.

The same trend happens on Minorca and Ibiza. However, the municipalities in the interior of Majorca, some of them in the Serra Tramuntana, and Arta in the eastern part of Majorca, have statistically kept their accident rates down below the yardstick of 12 for every 1'000 residents.

The municipalities of Majorca with the lowest accident rates in built-up areas are Banyalbufar, Sant Joan (Majorca), Sant Joan de Labritja and Santa Eugenia which over the past year have registered not a single accident in their residential and commercial zones.

Despite being large urban areas with high traffic volume, neither Inca, Andratx, Soller nor Sant Antoni de Portmany (Ibiza) have registered annual accident rates above an average of 9 per 1'000 residents.