A light electric vehicle (LEV) is a light, electrically powered vehicle to travel relatively short distances. Most electric vehicles cannot be used on public roads in the Netherlands, whereas in many other European countries this is permitted. Not much is known about the safety of LEVs since large-scale, systematic research is hardly available.
The social costs of road crashes in the Netherlands in 2022 are estimated at € 33 billion (between € 19 and € 44 billion), equivalent to 3.4% (1.9-4.6%) of the gross domestic product (GDP). This is significantly higher than other traffic-related social costs such as traffic congestion (€ 2.7 to € 3.5 billion) and environmental damage (€ 8.2 billion).
In 2023, 684 people were killed in road crashes in the Netherlands. That is 61 road deaths less than a year earlier, but more than between 2010 and 2021.
In 2022, the number of serious road injuries in the Netherlands was estimated at 8,300. That number is about 1,500 (over 20%) higher than the 2021 number and also slightly higher than was to be expected considering the upward trend through 2019.
This fact sheet considers road safety in the Netherlands from an international perspective. The number of serious road injuries is hard to compare to numbers in other countries, so we almost exclusively focus on the number of road deaths. For the Netherlands, we use the actual number of road deaths provided by Statistics Netherlands; i.e. the numbers adjusted for underregistration.
This fact sheet concerns mobility scooters, enclosed disability vehicles (such as the Dutch Canta) and microcars. It describes the characteristics of and regulations concerning the different vehicles, their usage and users, the road safety aspects and possible improvement measures.