The increase in the number of road deaths on national roads in 2015 : Statistical analysis, examination of crashes and exploration of possible explanatory factors. In 2015, the Netherlands counted 621 road deaths. This is an increase of 9% compared to the 570 road deaths in 2014. The increase in the number of road deaths is most strongly visible among car occupants (+ 37; + 20%) and drivers of mobility scooters and vehicles for the disabled (+ 14; + 50%). In the last group the annual number of road deaths had already been increasing for some time. The number of road deaths in registered crashes on the national road network was considerably higher in 2015 than in 2014; it rose from 63 in 2014 to 82 in 2015 (+ 30%). The national road network consists of all roads of which Rijkswaterstaat is the road authority. Rijkswaterstaat is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and is responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in the Netherlands. The roads in the national road network are mainly motorways, and also a small set of other road types. This increase, particularly on the national roads system, led Rijkswaterstaat to commission SWOV to perform a limited study. This study consisted of three components: 1. a statistical analysis of, among other things, the statistical significance of this increase; 2. a crash analysis to identify prominent features of the crashes on the national road network; 3. an analysis of external factors that may explain why the number of road deaths increased in 2015, not only on the national road network in the Netherlands, but generally, in the whole of the country. This report addresses each of the three questions above, each one in an individual chapter.
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