The Dutch Ministry of Transport and Public Works (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat) 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 a method to assess all hospital admissions of traffic accident victims. The method was used for determining the actual number of these casualties for the year 1997. The total number of hospital admissions (excluding those who died within 30 days) resulting from road traffic accidents in the Netherlands was 20,190 for 1997. The numbers of accidents were also estimated with the use of a method especially developed for this purpose. Casualties were categorised according to how they participated in the accident as well as their age and gender. Accidents were categorised according to the month, day of the week, period during the day, and the province in which they occurred. The margins between the subdivisions are definitely wider than those between the totals. 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) See also IRRD 891633 (see C 8219) and 897975 (see C 9628).
Abstract