According to the definition of a road crash (introduced by Statistics Netherlands in 1926), a pedestrian fall or collision is only considered a road crash when a moving vehicle is involved. Road crashes (pedestrian crashes) therefore do not include pedestrian falls in public space, collisions with stationary objects, or injuries sustained without the involvement of a moving vehicle.
Between 2010 and 2019, an annual average of 59 pedestrians were killed as a result of a road crash (source: Statistics Netherlands datalink). It is estimated that the number of pedestrians killed or admitted to hospital and registered as road crashes constitutes a quarter of all pedestrians killed or hospitalised after an accident on a public road (including falls and suchlike) [2]. See Schepers and Methorst [3] for more information about pedestrian falls.
In 1999-2019, fewer and fewer pedestrians were killed in road crashes (see Figure 2). Since 1999, the number of pedestrian road deaths has decreased by 62%. In the last few years, however, the decrease has stagnated.
Figure 2. Number of pedestrian road deaths in 1999-2019 (source: Statistics Netherlands datalink).
Over the years, the share of serious road injuries among pedestrians has also decreased. Figure 3 shows the distribution of serious road injuries by mode of transport in 2000-2018.
Figure 3. Distribution of serious road injuries in the Netherlands in 2000-2018 by mode of transport, based on the National Hospital Registration, a database managed by Dutch Hospital Data (DHD). For bicycle crashes, a distinction was made between crashes involving a motor vehicle (M) or not involving (N) a motor vehicle. This distinction may not be entirely accurate, since mode of transport is not always accurately registered in the National Hospital Registration (source: DHD en SWOV).
