In addition to the road quality I would say the driver's ed is also a big factor. Getting a license in Sweden is much tougher than most other places, especially the US.
South Africa has one of the toughest driving tests (the K53). Not to mention that even applying and qualifying for one is an ordeal on its own. And yet, the fatality rate is around 32 per 100k. If you make it too hard for people to obtain a license, they'll get one illegally. If you make the test too hard, they'll do the same. If you make the test impractical, it becomes worthless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/world/africa/30license.htm...
These tests also include driving at a facility.
However, the EU requirements are minimum requirements, countries are allowed to make the requirements tougher, such as Finland (which I think requires at least 3 days at a facility).
Actually, in Finland the requirement is 3 hours (3 * 50 minutes, to be precise) driving in a track, practicing maneuvers in slippery conditions.
Wintertime they of course have proper ice conditions in the tracks. If you do this practice summer time, they try to make the track slippery using water or oil, but the achieved level of slipperiness can vary.
Is the education split into three seperate parts in all EU countries (first gives a temporary license, and there must be a few months before the others (to get real world driving experience), but all must be done withing 2 years)? When I got my license, the education cost about 2500 euros (I think it's higher now). Is that about the same as elsewhere in the EU?
I know tunnels was required in 2011, but the teacher also seemed to indicate that it was a recent change.
I never used a simulator, night driving meant driving at night. Taking a bus driving licence was mostly the same ordeal, although there is some extra focus in the theory about how a bus works and what requirements it has.
When I took my B-category driving licence, it cost about 6500 DKK (about 880 euros). But that was a big driving school, I also see prices at 8000 DKK (about 1075 euros). Fortunately, my bus driving licence was subsidised (so I only paid 3600 DKK (480 euros)), otherwise it would have cost 31000 DKK (4180 euros).
But I hear Finland is unbelievable expensive.
But fortunately a family member (or similar) can also teach, with just a few mandatory lessons at "facilities". This way, the cost is around 500 euros (if you don't include the car and fuel costs when driving the mandatory 20 half-hour lessons.)
(License categories are the same in all of EU I think: A is for motorcycles, B a car, C a lorry, D a bus, E a trailer, with sub-divisions like A1 and A2 for different power classes of motorcycles etc; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_license#mediaviewer/...).
In Finland, licenses were about to become very expensive last year after a law change that was lobbied by driving schools - that effectively made it impossible to teach your own family members to drive. But after seeing the ripping-off by driving schools, and also after extensive protests by the public, the government (unbelievably) backed down and changed the rules back so that teaching a family member is again feasible. My third kid is soon ready for the driving test...
BTW people say that it's a great test of trust and co-operation between a parent and a teenager to try to teach a young one to drive. For me this has fortunately gone very well.
We don't have costs after the 2 years though, the license just graduates and becomes permanent. Now you'd receive a certain number of points for the offenses listed above and there are limits that might require you to take driving lessons again or - in bad cases - might again lead to the loss of your license.
There's even a standardized roadsign for when tunnel rules apply: http://www.finlex.fi/data/sdliite/liikm/5226.gif
Of course, e.g. in Finland the part about headlights doesn't matter much because headlights are obligatory all the time, anyway.
And: there are some things you need to know about driving in/in to/out of a tunnel, particularly in winter conditions.
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8486413,-122.2424951,3a,24.8...