This report provides insight in the state of road safety on the Dutch national highway network for the period up to the year 2007. The data from the police accident registration is used for the underlying analysis. Regarding the current trend in the number of victims, it looks like that the objective for the reduction of the number of deaths will be reached. However the objectives for the reduction of hospital injuries might not be reached if the current trend continues. The cost for society resulting from traffic accidents on the national highway network is approximately 590 million Euros yearly. Despite the increase in the amount of vehicle kilometres driven on the national highway network, the number of severely injured people has decreased over the years. The risk of an accident with severe injuries has decreased by 20% since 1998. 31% of the victims on the main carriageways can be found in 82 black spot locations and 445 accident concentrations. Regarding the junctions with roads of the regional road network, 25% of the victims in these junctions can be found in 15 black-spot locations and 88 accident concentrations. In order to get insight in the status of the road safety situation, the relation between specific infrastructure and number of accidents has been analysed. In recent years the share of shoulder-related accidents varies between 25% and 30%. The seriousness of these accidents is higher than average. Between 5-6% of the accidents with severe injuries occur on highway junctions. The share of accidents with severe injuries during road works varies between 3% and 5%. The seriousness of these accidents is higher than the average and the share of severe injured people has risen by 13% since 2004. The road safety status is analysed from the point of view of mobility. A correlation is made between means of transport, traffic jams and accidents. 75% of the severe injured victims were riding in a passenger car. 10% in a van, 8% were on a motorcycle and 4% in lorries. Accidents between lorries result in relatively many victims (28,2%). The number of severe injured victims in vans and lorries has decreased substantially since 2004, (-42% and -21%). 2-3% of the accidents with injuries occurs in traffic jams. The seriousness of the injuries from these accidents is lower than the average. However the number of accidents with serious injured victims has risen 144% since 2004. The road user behaviour, i.e. speeding, alcohol use and wrong way driving is also analysed. Between 65 and 67% of the accidents resulting in severe injuries, are related to speeding. The seriousness and share regarding the total number of accidents has decreased. Between 8-10% of the accidents resulting in victims, are related to alcohol use. The seriousness of these accidents is above average. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting