Since long, road accident data are collected in the European Union (EU) countries by the use of their own national collection systems. At European level, road accident data are also available since 1991 in disaggregate level in CARE, the Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury. CARE comprises detailed data on individual accidents as collected by the Member States, using a structure which allows for maximum flexibility and potential with regard to analysing the information contained in the system. The purpose of CARE system is to provide a powerful tool which would make it possible to identify and quantify road safety problems throughout the European roads, evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, determine the relevance of Community actions and facilitate the exchange of experience in this field. Parts of the national data sets are integrated into the CARE database in their original national structure and definitions, however, as existing national accident data collection systems are not always compatible and comparable among the countries, the European Commission (EC) provides and applies a framework of transformation rules to the national data sets, allowing CARE to have compatible data. (Author/publisher)
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