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The road safety situation in the Netherlands

 

The Netherlands is still one of the safest countries in Europe. However, the recently published annual analysis for 1999 shows that the road safety improvements in the Netherlands in the 1990's lag behind those in most of the other EU countries. That is why, in order to achieve a further improvement, an increased policy effectiveness is necessary. Only then can the national road safety targets for 2010 be achieved.

 

The SWOV analysis of road safety developments is published every year. It describes the size and nature of road safety in the Netherlands, as well as developments in road safety. The 1999 analysis (D-2000-15) discusses trends, backgrounds, and explanations of accident and casualty rates. It also makes prognoses for the developments up to 2010, the target year. Special attention is paid to high-risk traffic behaviour and the safety developments of a number of specific high-risk groups. The most important results are given briefly below.

A first conclusion is that the number of victims continues to decrease, even though the number of motor vehicle kilometres travelled continues to increase. It can therefore be said that, in general, there is a positive development in road safety in the Netherlands. The death rate, per kilometre travelled, also continues to decrease.

However, there is still much room left for improvement. Each year, there are nearly 1,200 road deaths and nearly 20,000 in-patients. In addition, over 200,000 are treated in Accident and Emergency hospital departments or by general practitioners (doctors). This number also includes victims who need a long time to recover.

Furthermore, the number of annual road deaths is decreasing slower than before, and, since the early 1990's, the number of in-patients has not decreased at all. Of the five safest countries in Europe, the Netherlands even has the smallest decrease in the number of road deaths. This means that the road safety development can be improved considerably; even if it is a relatively safe country.

Prognoses of kilometres travelled and risk developments show that the national in-patient target (40 percent less than in 1986) will certainly not be achieved if the pace of improvement is the same as the last ten years. The target for road deaths (50 percent less than in 1986) can be achieved if at least the same decrease in death rate as in the past decades is achieved. This will not happen automatically, but it is not altogether impossible either.

SWOV regards the formulation of so-called performance indicators (targets) for high-risk traffic behaviours, and monitoring their developments, as an important instrument for achieving a further reduction in the number of road accident casualties in the Netherlands. There can be separate performance indicators for drunk driving, speeding, and the use of seatbelts and other safety devices. Like general, national targets, such performance indicators can stimulate and guide the way in which available resources are used as effectively as possible. They can aim at the most relevant 'high-risk behaviours', high-risk groups, and high-risk traffic situations.

Moreover, measures should be taken for categories of road users that have relatively high numbers of victims. Travelling must become, and remain, safer for mopedists and light-mopedists, cyclists, and older car drivers. The large share of lorries in the numbers of fatal road accidents must also be reduced.

SWOV is convinced that further, permanent road safety improvements in the Netherlands are feasible. To achieve this, the above-mentioned areas need extra measures, their own targets, and policy attention. They must fit within the framework of the sustainably-safe approach, and be based on the ever-increasing scientific knowledge and insight.

SWOV Research Activities 16 - April 2001

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