COMPANY car users driving abroad are twice as likely to be killed in their vehicles as they would in the UK, according to a new report. Although more than 3,000 people a year die on UK roads and fleet drivers covering 25,000 miles a year face a higher risk than coalminers of being killed 'at work', Britain holds joint first place, along with Sweden, for the lowest number of deaths according to distance travelled on the roads.

The figure of 8.1 deaths per million motor vehicle kilometres is dwarfed by Greece, where the death rate is seven times greater, at 53.3, closely followed by Portugal on 44.2 and Spain with 37.5. The five countries with the lowest rates - Sweden, UK, Netherlands, Finland and Denmark - all have well-established accident reduction programmes in place.

The European Transport Safety Council study, called Exposure Data for Travel Risk Assessment, found that road transport has the highest death rate when compared to distance travelled and is the main cause of death for people under 45 years old, leading to 43,000 deaths annually, while a staggering 1.5 million people are seriously injured and a further 3.5 million slightly injured.