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From the age of 70, road users have an increased fatality rate as a result of a road crash. The fatality rate for older car drivers (70 or older) is 2.8 times higher than for younger drivers (under 60). Looking at cyclists and pedestrians, the difference in fatality rate is much greater: for older pedestrians it is 6.6 times higher, for older cyclists 12.4 times higher.
Several measures can be used to affect behaviour: enforcement, education and public communication, as well as vehicle and infrastructure measures. Measures that enforce or elicit safe behaviour are generally most effective, ensuring that road users do not have to (consciously) think to behave safely.
A bicycle helmet is intended to protect cyclists against head and brain injuries when they are involved in crashes. Research shows that in case of a crash helmeted cyclists are 60% less likely to sustain serious head/brain injuries and 70% less likely to sustain fatal head/brain injuries than cyclists not wearing a helmet.
During the most recent measurements, in 2022, 2.6% of the Dutch drivers were under the influence of alcohol during weekend nights, which amounts to almost double the lowest percentage of alcohol offenders measured (1.4% in 2017).
In the Netherlands, over a third of road deaths and well over two thirds of serious road injuries are cyclists. Cyclist fatality risk (the number of road deaths per distance travelled) is more than eight times higher than fatality risk for drivers, but over three times as low as that for motorised two-wheelers.
In the Netherlands, an average of 24 youngsters aged 12 to 17 are killed in traffic, most of whom are cyclists. After suicide, road crashes are the second most important cause of death of youngsters aged 10 to 19.
Wrong-way driving crashes are infrequent, but their outcome is often serious. Most wrong-way driving crashes occur when drivers inadvertently enter a motorway exit or when drivers turn around on a motorway.
In 2020, over a quarter of the total number of bicycle kilometres were cycled on pedelecs; particularly the over-65s opt for pedelecs. This is also borne out by the crash figures: in 2019 and 2020, almost one in three of the cyclist fatalities was a pedelec rider.
It will probably take at least several decades for completely self-driving vehicles to become commercially available, if they ever will. Yet, vehicles in which part of the driving task is automated, for example automated braking, accelerating and steering, are already available.
Since the seventies, the safety of car occupants has greatly improved, expressed in both the number of road crash fatalities and in mortality risk. Since 2011, however, the number of road deaths among car occupants has not decreased.