The risk of being seriously injured in traffic can be expressed as the number of serious road injuries per kilometre travelled. The risk is highest for two-wheelers (motorised and non-motorised) and has increased for these groups in recent years. The risk is lowest for car occupants (Figure 5).
Comparing different age groups, the risk of being seriously injured appears to be highest for older road users and has also continued to increase for this group (Figure 6). Teenagers aged 15-19 also have a slightly higher risk than other age groups. This is due to them being novice motor vehicle users; see also SWOV fact sheets Young drivers en Young road users (teenagers and adolescents).
Figure 6. The risk of sustaining serious injuries (serious road injuries per distance travelled) in the Netherlands, for different age groups, averaged over 2018-2022, based on hospital discharge register LBZ Note: the risk for age group 6-14 is a slight overestimate. Sources: Statistics Netherlands, DHD and SWOV.
