What is the official definition of a serious road injury?

Answer

In the Netherlands, serious road injuries are defined as casualties admitted to hospital with serious injuries due to a road crash, not having died within 30 days after the crash [1] [5] [6] [7]. A road crash is internationally defined as a crash on a public road, in which at least one moving vehicle is involved. The injury severity of the casualty, expressed as the Maximum Abbreviated Injury Score (MAIS) which ranges from 1 (slight injury) to 6 (maximum injury severity) [8] [9], must at least be MAIS3 [1] [5] [6] [7]. MAIS is an international standard to indicate the severity of an injury. This score can be derived from the patient’s various injuries. Examples of MAIS3 injuries are skull base fractures, hip or femur shaft fractures, or wrist or ankle amputations.

Through 2020, road casualties in the Netherlands were defined as ‘serious injuries’ if their injury severity was MAIS2 or higher (MAIS2+). Examples of MAIS2 injuries are bone fractures and concussions with brief loss of consciousness. After 2020, the Netherlands switched to a definition starting at MAIS3+ in order to match the international and medical definition of ‘serious injury’.

Up to 2010, the term ‘in-patients’ was used in the Netherlands [10]. This term was abandoned because not all of the hospitalised patients were found to be seriously injured and a significant number of them were found to have been hospitalised for observation only.

Image
Abeelding
Part of fact sheet

Serious road injuries in the Netherlands

In 2022, the number of serious road injuries in the Netherlands was estimated at 8,300. That number is about 1,500 (over 20%) higher than the 2021 Meer

Would you like to cite this fact sheet?