Yannis G., Evgenikos P., Lejeune P., Hoeglinger S., Broughton J., “Enhancement and exploitation of the existing European road accident data”, Proceedings of the 3rd IRTAD Seminar, OECD/ECMT, CDV, Brno, November 2006.

The objective of this research is to provide a complete approach for the further enhancement and exploitation of the existing road accident data contained in the various international databases (CARE, IRTAD, Eurostat, UN-ECE, etc.), which takes place within the EC co-funded integrated project SafetyNet. On this purpose, a methodology of four distinct tasks was adopted. The first task concerns the enhancement of the EU CARE database by progressive incorporation of road accident data from the new Member States. At the same time, the improvement of road accident data compatibility throughout Europe is attempted, through the establishment of a recommendation for a common framework for road accident data collection, among all EU countries. Moreover, identification of the real number of road fatalities and injuries is attempted throughout a special uniform methodology for the identification of the underreporting level for each casualty severity in the national road accident databases. Additionally, the possibility to use a new common measurement unit: the “hospitalised person”, is investigated. Finally, the exploitation of the various European databases is optimised through the development of a comprehensive set of statistical outputs with comparable statistics, useful for the support of decisions aiming to the improvement of road safety in the European Union. This integrated approach allows the European road safety Community to fully exploit the current important road safety data potential and subsequently produce reliable conclusions and backup important road safety decisions at EU, national and local level.