The IRTAD Annual Report 2014 provides an overview for road safety indicators for 2012 in 37 countries, with preliminary data for 2013, and detailed reports for each country. The report outlines the crash data collection process in IRTAD countries, describes the road safety strategies and targets in place and provides detailed safety data by road user, location and age together with information on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour. Key Messages: The road fatality count in IRTAD countries was 1.7% lower in 2012 than 2011 whilst mobility, in terms of motorised vehicle-kilometres, remained more or less constant. For ten IRTAD countries the number of fatalities increased in 2012. Although the fatality reduction fits into the long-term downward trend, 2012 saw the smallest reduction in ten years. Such a modest rate of improvement is insufficient to meet the UN road safety target. The objective of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011—2020 is to reduce the projected number of road fatalities worldwide (1.9 million in 2020 on past trends) by 50%. Five European countries managed to reduce their annual road fatalities per 100 000 population (mortality rate) to three or less, namely Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Iceland. The recent favourable developments in the safest IRTAD countries demonstrate the way forward for other countries, exemplifying that progress in road safety is always possible, even for the best performers. Preliminary trends for 2013, based on provisional fatality data, show an equally dispersed picture: ten of the countries saw an increase in fatalities, some in excess of 10%; 22 countries managed to reduce their road death toll, nine of them by more than 10% — Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland. Between 2000 and 2012, the annual death toll in IRTAD countries fell by nearly 40%, i.e. a reduction of more than 45 000 road deaths a year when compared to the level in 2000. This period saw robust road safety strategies with well-defined and targeted measures (such as in the areas of speed management, alcohol and seat-belt use) introduced in many countries for the first time. There was, however, limited success in saving lives among vulnerable road users. Reductions in deaths of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists have levelled-off and some increases have been recorded since 2009/10. Pedestrians are the largest group of vulnerable road users in most countries and alone account for around 19% of all fatalities in IRTAD countries, following a slightly increasing trend. Close to 40% of all pedestrians killed belong to the age group 65+. The ITF report, “Pedestrian Safety, Urban Space and Health”, sets out strategies to improve pedestrian safety and to promote walking as a healthy alternative and complement to motorised transport. The share of fatalities among elderly road users is slowly increasing in many IRTAD countries, reflecting the changing age structure of populations. In 2012, for European IRTAD members, the share of fatalities in the age group 65+ was for the first time in excess of 30%. In Japan, this share is traditionally even higher, at around 55%. Cycling is an increasingly popular alternative transport mode for short trips. The increased number of cyclists has been accompanied by a slowing of the rate of improvement, or even an increase in cycling fatalities over the past decade. The ITF report, “Cycling, Health and Safety”, explores options to improve cycling safety and presents a range of good-practice examples. Males account for the largest share of fatalities across all modes (including pedestrians), with the lowest shares in Japan (around 65% of all fatalities) and the highest in Europe (more than 75% in 2012). Inappropriate behaviour of road users, such as excessive and inappropriate speed, driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs and the non-use of safety equipment such as seat belts and crash helmets, remain important contributory factors in fatal crashes and for injuries. • The use of seat belts continues to differ widely between IRTAD countries, between 39% and 98% on front seats, and between 3% and 97% on rear seats. The costs to society of road crashes are substantial and constitute a major burden for economies. Although no common international approach to assess crash costs has been agreed, estimations range from 1 to 3% of GDP, depending on the methodology used, but could grow significantly as research on the consequences of the most severe injuries improves. In the quest to reduce serious injuries, IRTAD is encouraging governments to establish systems for the combined analysis of police and hospital data, in order to get a fuller picture of the true extent of the problem. The IRTAD database will be enlarged progressively to host additional information on estimates of serious injuries (with a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Score — MAIS - of 3 and more). (Author/publisher)
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