Abstract
Between August 1986 and July 1987 more than 24.000 households, containing nearly 67.000 persons were surveyed by telephone about traffic injuries during the past three months. Expressed on an annual basis, approx. 430.000 people or about 1 in 34 of the Dutch population had suffered some sort of injury in a road accident. 210.000 of these injuries fell within the definition for recording by the police. The police only recorded 49.748 traffic injuries, or about 25%. The police data were not representative. A number of recommendations are made for supplementing the police data and the existing hospital in- patient data.