The CARE database brings together the disaggregate details of road accidents and casualties across Europe. It is based on the national accident databases maintained by all EU member states, taking account of the differences between national systems for recording accidents. It is thus a vital resource in monitoring the level of road safety across Europe, and for formulating approaches for reducing the harm caused throughout Europe by road accidents. Access to the CARE database is permitted only to a restricted range of users, so it has been important to develop a comprehensive range of publications based on these data that are accessible to the general public. This process was begun in the SafetyNet project that was carried out between 2004 and 2008 as part of the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme. The concepts of the Basic Fact Sheet (BFS) and Annual Statistical Report (ASR) were developed, and by 2008 one ASR and twelve BFSs was being prepared annually by researchers at five institutes and published via the SafetyNet website. The ‘Main figures’ Fact Sheet provided an overview of the accident data. The other Fact Sheets presented a range of statistics derived from analyses of the CARE database relating to a specific group of accidents or casualties, such as pedestrian casualties or accidents occurring on motorways. All Fact Sheets gave details of trends over ten years, with more detailed analyses of data from the most recent year. The Annual Statistical Report consists of a large number of Tables and Figures with data retrieved from the CARE database, without further analysis or comment. Only data relating to fatal accidents or casualties were analysed because of inconsistencies between national reporting of non-fatal accidents and casualties. One of the tasks of DaCoTA Work Package 3 has been to continue to develop this area of work. These twelve Fact Sheets have been updated and new content has been added. Six new Fact Sheets have been developed, and the set of eighteen Fact Sheets that were prepared in 201 2 is listed in Table 1. The partners involved in this work are listed in Table 2. One part of the development has consisted of adding details of accident causation to Fact Sheets where appropriate, based on in-depth accident data collected during the SafetyNet project; this has been done for ten Fact Sheets as shown in Table 1. Another development in 2011 was the addition of a section ‘Road Accident Health Indicators’ to the Main Figures BFS based on analyses of data from the EU Injury Database. In 2012, health indicator sections based on analyses of the EU Injury Database were added to the nine BFS shown in Table 1. In addition a new BFS was developed dealing specifically with accident causation, based again on the SafetyNet in-depth data. Experience with the preparation of the 2010 Fact Sheets had demonstrated that authors needed more comprehensive guidance about style and content, so in the summer of 2011 one of the partners (TRL) developed the document ‘Design Principals for the Basic Fact Sheets and Annual Statistical Reports’. This guidance was followed by Partners as they worked on the 201 1 and 2012 editions. A central aim of road safety analysis is to measure and compare the risk of having an accident, so measures of exposure to risk are indispensable for providing the context for the accident and casualty data. Risk indicators are generally calculated as the ratios between accident or casualty counts and an appropriate exposure measure. Various indices exist that quantify more or less satisfactorily the exposure to risk of those travelling by road in a country, so they are related more or less directly to the number and type of road accident casualties in that country. These indices are typically divided into three groups: those relating to the people using the roads and their behaviour, those relating to the vehicles being used, and those relating to the road infrastructure. The range and detail of indices that are collected varies between countries. One of the tasks of DaCoTA Work Package 3 is to bring together the available files of exposure data to broaden the range of analyses of CARE data that can be conveniently be made. Where possible, these exposure data have been used to enhance the Fact Sheets. (Author/publisher)
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