The number of road deaths is determined by Statistics Netherlands, in close consultation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW). Statistics Netherlands analyses data from three different data sources to determine the number of road deaths in the Netherlands:
- Data from the cause of death forms filled out by a coroner;
- The district court files on deaths by unnatural causes;
- The (provisional) Database of Registered Crashes in the Netherlands (in Dutch: BRON), based on police crash reports. The final version of this database is published by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW).
By linking and comparing these data sources, Statistics Netherlands compiles the total number of road deaths in the Road Death Statistics. This can be seen in Figure 1.
Statistics Netherlands departs from the premise that all road deaths are registered in at least one of the three data sources. Based on analysis of the data, Statistics Netherlands determines the number of road deaths. Double counts are removed, and casualties that should not be included in the road deaths in the Netherlands (such as crashes abroad, crashes off public roads, suicides, natural causes of death) are removed from the database.
Additional information, such as the location of fatal crashes can be found in BRON. However, this database is not complete. Between 2014 and 2023, the registered number of road deaths in BRON was approximately 13% lower than the number determined by Statistics Netherlands in the Road Death Statistics, which is considered to be the real number. In 2023, the BRON registration rate was 89%: 77 of the 684 road deaths (according to Statistics Netherlands) were missing in the BRON database. BRON is known to particularly miss crashes not involving any other parties, or exclusively involving non-motorised traffic, or when a casualty dies at a later date, or when there is confusion about the type of crash (vehicle entering the water, crashes at railways, indisposition, suicide, intent) [3].
