Worldwide it was estimated that 1.2 million people were killed and 50 million more were injured in motor vehicle collisions in 2004.[2] This makes motor vehicle collisions the leading cause of death among children 10 – 19 years of age (260,000 children die a year, 10 million are injured)[3] and the sixth leading preventable cause of death in the United States[4] (45,800 people died and 2.4 million were injured in 2005).[5] Modern accident statistics often focus on reportable injury accidents (which include deaths) rather than reporting on deaths alone. It is believed that serious accidents are often significantly under-reported, under-recorded and misclassified[6] and that the completeness of reporting may vary over time and between sources.[7]
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Road toll figures in developed nations show that car collision fatalities have declined since 1980. Japan is an extreme example, with road deaths decreasing to 5,115 in 2008, which is 25% of the 1970 rate per capita and 17% of the 1970 rate per vehicle distance travelled. In 2008, for the first time, more pedestrians than vehicle occupants were killed in Japan by cars.[8] Besides improving general road conditions like lighting and separated walkways, Japan has been installing intelligent transportation system technology such as stalled-car monitors to avoid crashes.
In developing nations, statistics may be grossly inaccurate or hard to get. Some nations have not significantly reduced the total death rate, which stands at 12,000 in Thailand in 2007, for example.[9]
In the United States, twenty-eight states had reductions in the number of automobile accident fatalities between 2005 and 2006.[10] 55% of vehicle occupants 16 years or older in 2006 were not using seat belts when they crashed.[11]
Road fatality trends tend to follow Smeed's law,[12] an empirical schema that correlates reduced injury rates with increased traffic congestion as measured by car ownership rates.
Crashes are categorized by what is struck and the direction of impact, or impacts. These are some common crash types, based on the total number that occurred in the U.S.A. in 2005, the percentage of total crashes, and the percentage of fatal crashes:[13]
Rollover, head-on, pedestrian, and bicyclist crashes combined are only 6.1% of all crashes, but cause 34.5% of traffic-related fatalities.
Sometimes the vehicles in the collision can suffer more than one type of impact, such as during a shunt or high-speed spin. This is called a "second harmful event," such as when a vehicle is redirected by the first crash into another vehicle or fixed object.
Country | Surface
(thousands of km²) |
Population
(millions) |
Density
(inhabitants/km2) |
Vehicles in circulation
(thousands) |
Length
of the road network (kilometers) |
Circulation
(millions of vehicles x km) |
Nb of the vehic.
for 100 inhabitants |
Killed for million
of inhabitants |
Killed for billion of km travelled |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Germany | 357 | 82.5 | 231.1 | 54,520 | 626,981 | 684,283 | 66.1 | 64.8 | 7.8 |
Austria | 84 | 8.2 | 97.7 | 5,279 | 107,143 | 82,221 | 64.5 | 93.8 | 9.3 |
Belgium | 33 | 10.4 | 320.3 | 6,159 | 151,372 | 94,677 | 59.1 | 104.5 | 11.5 |
Denmark | 43 | 5.4 | 126 | 2,570 | 72,074 | 47,940 | 47.3 | 61 | 6.9 |
Spain | 505 | 43.4 | 86 | 27,657 | 666,204 | ND | 63.7 | 103.1 | ND |
Finland | 338 | 5.2 | 15.5 | 2,871 | 79,150 | 51,675 | 54.7 | 72.2 | 7.3 |
France | 551 | 60.5 | 109.7 | 37,168 | 1,002 486 | 552,800 | 61.4 | 87.9 | 9.6 |
Greece | 132 | 11.1 | 84 | 6,641 | 40,164 | 81,635 | 59.9 | 149.1 | 20.3 |
Hungary | 93 | 10.1 | 108.5 | 3,370 | 180,994 | ND | 33.4 | 126.6 | ND |
Republic of Ireland | 71 | 4.1 | 58.6 | 1,937 | 95,752 | 37,840 | 46.7 | 96.2 | 10.5 |
Italy | 301 | 58.1 | 192.8 | 43,141 | 305,388 | 654,197 | 74.3 | 94 | 8.3 |
Luxembourg | 3 | 0.5 | 179.8 | 358 | 2,876 | 2,875 | 77 | 98.9 | 16.0 |
Netherlands | 42 | 16.3 | 392.5 | 8,627 | 117,430 | 133,800 | 52.9 | 46 | 5.6 |
Poland | 323 | 38.5 | 119.4 | 16,815 | 381,462 | 377,289 | 43.6 | 141.3 | 14.4 |
Portugal | 93 | 10.5 | 113.3 | 5,481 | 81,739 | ND | 52.2 | 118.8 | ND |
United Kingdom | 244 | 60.2 | 246.7 | 33,717 | 413,120 | 499,396 | 56 | 55.9 | 6.7 |
Slovakia | 49 | 5.4 | 110.1 | 1,834 | 17,755 | 13,402 | 34 | 112.6 | 45.4 |
Slovenia | 20 | 2 | 97 | 1,150 | 20,196 | 15,519 | 58.5 | 69* | 16.6 |
Sweden | 450 | 9 | 20.1 | 5,131 | 214,000 | 75,196 | 56.8 | 48.7 | 5.9 |
Czech Republic | 79 | 10.2 | 129.6 | 4,732 | 55,495 | 50,262 | 46.3 | 125.8 | 27.2 |
Partial Total Eu (20 countries) | 3809 | 451.1 | 118.4 | 269,158 | 4,631,781 | 3,451,938 | 59.7 | 88.5 | 11.6 |
Iceland | 103 | 0.3 | 2.9 | 236 | 91,916 | 2,006 | 80.3 | 64.6 | 9.5 |
Norway | 324 | 4.6 | 14.3 | 2,938 | 92,511 | 36,550 | 63.6 | 48.5 | 6.1 |
Switzerland | 41 | 7.4 | 179.6 | 5,043 | 71,027 | 62,685 | 68 | 55.2 | 6.5 |
Source IRTAD for the following data :
Number of vehicles : 2005 except Ireland 2003 ; Luxembourg 2004 ; Slovakia 2002.
Length of the network: 2005 except Hungary and Luxembourg 2004 ; Germany and Danemark 2003 ; Slovakia 2002 ; Iceland 2000 ; Ireland 2001 ; Netherlands 1999 ; Greece and United Kingdom 1998 ; Portugal 1993 ; Italy 1992. Distance in Kilometres : 2005 except Danemark 2004 ; Italy and Netherlands 2003 ; Ireland 2001 ; Iceland and Slovakia 2000 ; United Kingdom and Greece 1998.
Population : source IRTAD except for Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Sweden, Iceland and Norway: source INED.