In the first quarter this year, the number of reported accidents reached 3,618; a decrease of 294 or 7.5 per cent over the same quarter last year, the National Statistics Office reported yesterday.

In the period under review, the number of accidents in the Southern Eastern District registered a marginal increase of 1.1 per cent. The Southern Harbour, Northern Harbour,Western and Northern Districts registered a decrease of 27, 94, 72 and 83 cases over the same quarter last year.

In Gozo and Comino the number of accidents decreased by 22 to 168 from 190 in the previous year.

In the quarter under review, 126 drivers sustained injuries as a result of traffic accidents; of these, 94 suffered slight injuries. There were 29 drivers who suffered grievous injuries and there were three fatalities, all men. During the same period, 40 pedestrians and 65 passengers were injured.

The number of slightly-injured persons in the first quarter of 2006 totalled 166; of these, 93 were men and 73 were females. In the 15-24 and 25-39 year age groups, 32 and 23 men in each age group suffered slight injuries. The number of injured females in the same age groups reached 11 and 25 respectively. Persons sustaining grievous and fatal injuries totalled 65; 42 were men and 23 were women. In the first quarter of 2005, there were 231 reported casualties; of these, 180 or 77.9 per cent were caused by passenger cars, while 25 or 10.8 per cent were caused by motorcycles. There were 69 casualties in the 25-39 year age groups; 51 of them occurring to passenger car travellers.

In the quarter under review, 120 or 51.9 per cent of the reported casualties occurred during Friday-Sunday. However, the three fatalities happened on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday respectively.