Montenegro sees no case yet to raise speed limits

Montenegro’s Ministry of Transport told Vijesti that previous road-safety audits and inspections have not shown a professional justification for raising speed limits, and that a specific analysis of traffic signs is still ahead.

The review of existing limits on state roads is still in a preparatory phase. No decisions have been taken and no proposals have been prepared to raise the permitted speed on particular sections. The ministry did not say when the analysis might finish or when new signs might be installed.

It warned that Montenegro is near the top of Europe for road deaths, with about 108 fatalities per million inhabitants, against a European Union average of about 43. In 2025, 67 people were killed in traffic crashes, 46 of them on main roads. Measurements covering more than 37,500 vehicles found that 52.8 percent of drivers exceeded the limit. According to the ministry, preliminary expert findings identified inappropriate speed as the leading cause of fatal crashes last year.

The comments followed a September initiative by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to review existing limits, after changes to the Road Traffic Safety Law and tighter checks on road users. Vijesti had also reported dissatisfaction among some drivers. In an editorial survey that collected 1,107 responses, 82.9 percent of the 1,100 participants who answered a question on whether the limits were appropriate said they were more often too low than too high. Respondents also pointed to frequent changes in the permitted speed on short stretches and to signs they considered illogical or out of step with road conditions.

The Transport Ministry said possible changes must be decided only on the basis of expert analysis and data. It said it supports any initiative aimed at greater road safety, while stressing that speed limits must be set from analysis and data rather than from impressions. In its view, every decision on a speed limit directly affects the number of people killed and injured on Montenegrin roads.

After the interior ministry’s initiative, the transport ministry held several meetings with the responsible institutions. Together with the Transport Administration, which manages main and regional roads, it examined routes where speeding is most pronounced and where traffic police most often carry out checks. Those data were used to select the roads where signs, including existing speed limits, will be analysed first.

The ministry said the review is currently in a preparatory phase and that the next step is a traffic-sign study and a traffic-sign project. It gave no deadline for completing the analysis or for the first concrete decisions. The Transport Administration must first issue a public call for the study, after which a designer is chosen, the project is prepared in line with the study and then audited. Only after those procedures can new signs be installed. The ministry said the timing depends on public procurement and on the deadlines for preparing and auditing the project, steps required by law so that every change is professionally grounded and checked. It confirmed that, once the study is complete, the Transport Administration will present the resulting solutions and conclusions in public.

The ministry said Montenegro has, in line with European practice, introduced a road safety audit at the design stage and a safety inspection of existing roads. The Transport Administration has carried out several such projects. Among the latest are Lipci–Grahovo and Cetinje–Budva, which the ministry said are finished on the ground or still under way. The interior ministry earlier told Vijesti that audits of Lipci–Grahovo and Kolašin–Mateševo had been completed. The transport ministry did not provide the individual results and did not say whether any specific parts of those roads needed a higher or lower limit.

It said the purpose of the checks is not simply to raise or lower the number on a sign, but to make the road safer, prevent crashes and reduce their consequences, an approach the profession calls a road that forgives mistakes. Reviews so far have not established a professional justification for higher limits, and the ministry said no proposal to raise the permitted speed has been prepared because the audits did not show that such a justification exists.

The ministry cited a model used by the World Health Organization and the World Bank under which a 1 percent increase in average speed raises the risk of a fatal crash by about 4 percent and the risk of a crash with serious consequences by about 3 percent. Conversely, it said a reduction in average speed of only 5 percent can cut the number of deaths by about 20 percent.

Priority sections for safety checks are chosen using several criteria, including road condition under the international iRAP methodology, analysis of dangerous sections and so-called black spots, the spatial distribution of crashes and data on speeding. Particular attention is given to fatal crashes and serious injuries.

According to figures given to Vijesti, main roads account for 30.6 percent of all crashes but 69 percent of all deaths. Of the 67 people killed in traffic in 2025, 46 died on main roads. The ministry said these are the roads where people drive fastest and that speed affects both whether a crash occurs and how severe its consequences are.

Asked whether the checks had already shown unjustifiably low or high limits, or illogical and frequent speed changes on short sections, the ministry said the specific analysis of speed limits is still to come. Licensed specialists will carry it out through the traffic-sign study, and the public will be informed of the findings, including any inconsistencies in the signs.

The ministry also cited the 2025 road-safety report, which recorded 6,831 crashes in Montenegro. In those crashes 67 people were killed and 3,179 were injured, including 685 seriously. The death toll was lower than in 2024, when 75 people were killed, but the report rates the overall state of road safety as unsatisfactory because risky behaviour by road users continues to rise.

The ministry said Norway records 16 road deaths per million inhabitants, Sweden 20 and Denmark about 24. Even Romania and Bulgaria, which it ranks among the European Union’s weakest countries on road safety, have fewer deaths per million than Montenegro, at 77 and 78.

Speed measurements in October and November 2025, on a sample of more than 37,500 vehicles, found that 52.8 percent of drivers were above the limit. The highest share was in Petnjica, where 78.2 percent of drivers did not respect the limit, followed by Danilovgrad at 70.1 percent, Bijelo Polje at 68.6 percent and Pljevlja at 68.5 percent. On the motorway, 44.6 percent of drivers exceeded the 100 km/h limit. Preliminary expert findings put inappropriate speed ahead of crossing into the opposite lane, alcohol, failure to use a seat belt and inattention as the leading cause of fatal crashes in 2025.

To illustrate the possible consequences, the ministry gave the example of a car and a child: if a child runs onto the roadway 36 metres ahead, a car travelling at 50 km/h can stop, while a car travelling at 80 km/h would strike the child at about 62 km/h, which is almost always fatal.

Changing limits on main and regional roads is the responsibility of the Transport Administration. A licensed traffic engineer first prepares a traffic-sign project, which a licensed auditor then checks. Signs are installed or changed only on the basis of the audited project. The designer takes account of road geometry, visibility, traffic density, pavement condition, the presence of pedestrians, cyclists and junctions, and the vehicle’s dynamic characteristics. When a road is rebuilt, a new signage project sets out the horizontal and vertical signs in line with the law, technical rules and professional standards. The ministry said the figure on a sign is the result of engineering calculations intended to leave the driver enough space and time to react and avoid a crash.

The ministry appealed to road users to treat speed limits as a measure protecting their own lives and the lives of others. It called on drivers to follow the rules, drive rested and focused, and not to drive under the influence of alcohol or psychoactive substances. It said fatigue, inattention and intoxication lengthen reaction time and further increase the risk of a crash and its consequences.