The Dutch Ministry of Transport and Public Works wishes to arrive at a new approach for registering data concerning road traffic accidents to be able to determine the actual extent of unsafe road traffic conditions. Within this context, the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research has developed and applied an incremental method denoting two separate categories for the severity of injuries sustained by road victims: hospital admissions, and injured persons treated in the hospital's Emergency Care Department. The method was used for determining the actual number of these victims from the years 1994 through 1996. The total number of hospital admissions resulting from road traffic accidents occurring in the Netherlands was 19,840 for 1994, 20,000 for 1995, and 19,420 for 1996. The total number injured persons requiring hospital emergency care as a result of road traffic accidents occurring in The Netherlands was 99,200 for 1994, 102,500 for 1995, and 91,200 for 1996. Recommendations were made for the purpose of arriving at even better assessments of the actual extent of unsafe road traffic conditions in the future. (A)
Abstract