In The Netherlands, there is an increasing interest in multiple traffic offenders. Drivers without a valid licence belong to this group. For good policy making it is important to establish the number of these offenders and to which extent they harm road safety. For this reason SWOV carried out a study into this issue. There are different forms of driving without a valid licence. In the first place, there are drivers who have never possessed a licence. Then there are drivers who drive while a measure or sanction invalidates the licence, for example in the form of a disqualification or an annulment. Finally, there are drivers who drive a car while their licence has been confiscated (by the police), withdrawn or suspended. The first research question concerns the extent to which driving without a licence takes place; in road safety research this is mostly expressed in the distance travelled in traffic. The second question concerns the (increased) crash rate per kilometre. Combining the distance travelled and the crash rate per kilometre can give an idea of the number of extra casualties due to driving without a licence and also of the effect of measures (reduction in casualties) if driving without a licence no longer happens. Both subjects, size of the problem and risk, expressed in crash rate per kilometre, will be discussed in this report.
Abstract