This 15th Road Safety PIN Flash is launched in conjunction with the World Day of Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims taking place every 3rd Sunday of November, falling in 2009 on the 15th of November. In addition to the 39,000 people killed in road collisions in the European Union, about 1,700,000 people are recorded as injured in police records each year, among them 300,000 seriously. Road deaths represent only the “tip of the iceberg” of traffic collisions. For every road death in the EU, at least 44 road injuries are recorded, of which 8 are categorised as “serious”. Involvement in road accidents is one of the leading causes of death and hospital admission for EU citizens under 45 years of age. Today, thanks to more protective vehicles and roads, better emergency response and medical progress, many deaths are prevented but the survivors remain and many are seriously injured. European and national decision makers should not neglect this less-publicised part of the real picture by referring only to road deaths. Yet, EU comparisons are hampered because both the levels of injury reporting and national definitions of a serious injury vary greatly among countries. The magnitude of underreporting undermines proper allocation of resources to preventive measures. Improving the quality of data about seriously injured survivors of road collisions is key to designing more effective safety policies. Sweden is taking the lead in linking police and hospital data and wishes to start using its number of seriously injured recorded by the hospital for international comparison. (Author/publisher)
Abstract