This paper aims at assessing the effectiveness of introducing road safety onto the political agenda in the year 2004 – and the overall effect of the road safety measures implemented thereafter - on the number of road traffic injured people in Spain. An evaluation study was performed using an interrupted time-series design. The study population were people injured in road traffic crashes in Spain between the 1st of January 2000 and the 31st of December 2006. The road traffic crashes database of the General Directorate for Traffic was used. The dependent variable was the monthly number of people injured, stratified by sex, age, severity and type of road user. The explanatory variable (intervention) compared the post-intervention period (2004–2006) with the pre-intervention period (2000–2003). Quasi-Poisson regression models were adjusted, controlling for time trend and for seasonality. Results show a reduction in the risk of being injured for both men (RR=0.91; 95%CI: 0.87, 0.95) and women (RR=0.89; 95%CI: 0.85, 0.94). Risk reductions were observed across all age groups and all road users, except for pedestrians. The present study suggests that prioritising road safety reduces the number of people injured in road traffic collisions. (Author/publisher)
Abstract