In 2016-2020 [i], an average of 142 fatal run-off-road crashes involving motor vehicles (excluding two-wheelers) were recorded annually, resulting in an average of 157 road deaths (BRON). This represents over a quarter of all fatal crashes and road deaths in the Netherlands, as shown in Table 1. Some of the run-off-road crashes concern vehicles that ended up in the water. This category is also discussed separately in SWOV fact sheet Submerged vehicle crashes. Recent numbers of run-off-road crashes with injuries only and numbers of road injuries as a result of run-off-road crashes cannot be properly determined due to the under-registration of these crashes in BRON.
Table 1. Fatal run-off-road crashes involving motor vehicles (excluding motorised two-wheelers) - an estimate based on crashes in BRON with crash type: 'single-vehicle', 'loose object' or 'fixed object'
Cyclists and other two-wheelers can also have run-off-road crashes. However, these have not been included in Table 1 as it is harder to determine whether these road users were indeed involved in run-off-road crashes [ii]. For cyclists, however, the share of run-off-road crashes has been estimated based on the Injury Information System [1]: about 20% of the A&E-treated cyclists turned out to have had a run-off-road crash. These are cycling crashes in which cyclists rode onto the roadside and/or hit a kerb and fell as a result.
[i] At the time of writing this fact sheet, these were the most recent data.
[ii] The number of run-off-road crashes was estimated based on crashes in BRON with crash type 'single-vehicle', 'loose object' or 'fixed object'. In the case of cycling crashes, single-vehicle crashes can also include road falls and crashes involving mounting and dismounting, and in addition, the number of cycling crashes not involving a motor vehicle is rather under-reported in BRON.
