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The need for improved EU level accident information and data was identified in the EU White Paper on Transport Policy (2001)1 and detailed in the Road Safety Action Plan (2003)2. The plan specifies that the EC will develop a road safety observatory to coordinate data collection within an integrated framework.
Although the annual traffic accident statistics published by the national police is available in public, the detailed traffic accident data has not been released in Korea. Recently the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recognized the importance of in-depth accident data to enhance road traffic safety and initiated a research project to establish a collection of the detailed accident data. The main objective of the project is a feasibility study to establish KIDAS (Korea In-Depth Accident Study). Within this project, three university hospitals which are located in mid-size cities have been selected to collect accident data. Annually, more than 500 cases of accidents have been collected from the in-patient's interviews and diagnosis. Unlike GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study), currently on-site investigation can"t be performed by the Korean police. The only available data is patient medical records, patient's description of accident circumstances and the damaged vehicle. Occasionally the police provide the accident investigation reports containing very brief information on accident causation and vehicle safety. In a first step, the concept of KIDAS is to adopt the format of iGLAD (Initiative for the Global Harmonization of Accident Data) for harmonization. Since the currently collected accident information is extremely limited compared with GIDAS, the other sources of data and calculations such as KNCAP vehicle data, pc-crash simulations, vehicle registration information, insurance company data are utilized to complete the iGLAD template. Results from KIDAS_iGLAD and the cases of assessment of active safety devices such as AEBS, ESC, and LDWS will be evaluated.
The paper gives an overview of the recent (mostly 2012) figures of killed bus/coach occupants (drivers and passengers) in 27 Member States of the European Union as reported by CARE. The Evolution of the figures of bus/coach occupants killed in road accidents urban, rural without motorway and on motorways from 1991 to 2010 in 15 Member States of the EU supplements this information. More detailed are the figures reported for Germany by the Federal Statistics. The paper displays long-term evaluations (1957 to 2012) for killed, seriously and slightly injured occupants in all kinds of buses/coaches. Midterm evaluations (1995 to 2012) of the figures of fatalities and casualties are displayed for different busses according to their identification of road using as coaches, urban buses, school buses, trolley buses and "other buses". To be able to compare the evolutions of the safety of vehicle occupants it is customary to use different risk indicators. Calculations and illustrations for three often used indicators with their development over time are given: fatalities, seriously injured and slightly injured per 100,000 vehicles registered, per 1 billion (109) vehicle-kilometres travelled and per 1 billion (109) person-kilometres. These indicators are shown for occupants of cars, goods vehicles and buses/coaches. For the period from 1957 until 2012 it is obvious, that for all three vehicle categories analysed there was a clear long-term trend towards more occupant safety in terms of casualties per vehicles registered and per vehicle mileage. This was most significant for car occupants but it can be seen for bus/coach occupants and goodsvehicle occupants as well. Figures of killed occupants and of casualties related to person-kilometres are calculated and displayed for the shorter period 1995 to 2012. Here it becomes obvious that the bus/coach is still the safest mode of transport for the occupants of road vehicles. Graphs for the casualty risk indices still show significantly higher risks for car occupants despite the corresponding curve moved sustainable downwards. It is remarkable, that the risks of being killed or injured for the occupants of urban buses is growing whereas the corresponding risk for the occupants of coaches in line traffic tends downwards. The article ends with a short comparison and discussion of the risk indicators which are actually published for the occupants (driver and passengers) of cars and the passengers of buses/coaches, railroads, trams and airplanes. The interpretation of such information depends on the perception and it seems that for a complete view not only one indicator should be used and the evolutions of the indicator values during longer periods (as displayed with examples in the paper) should also be taken into account.
Data concerning accidents involving personal injury which have been collected in the context of in-depth investigations on scene in the Hannover area since 1973 and in the Dresden area since 1999 represent an important basis for empirical traffic safety research. At national and international level various analyses and comparisons are carried out on the basis of "in-depth data" from the above mentioned investigations. In-depth data play a decisive role e.g. within the validation of EuroNCAP results on secondary safety (crashworthiness) of individual passenger car models. Thus, statistically sound methods of data analysis and population parameter estimation are of high importance. Since the 1st of August 1984 the "in-depth investigations on scene" in the Hannover area have been carried out according to a sampling plan developed by HAUTZINGER in the context of a research project on behalf of BASt. In the meantime a second region of in-depth investigation on scene was added with surveys in Dresden and the surrounding area. Internationally, the acronym GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) is commonly used for the two above mentioned surveys. The objective of a current research project (topic of this contribution) is, among other things, to examine and adjust the previous weighting and expansion method for the two regional accident investigations to the current general conditions.
In an on-going project since 2005, ADAC has been analyzing accidents documented by the ADAC air rescue service. The knowledge derived from real-life accidents serves as a basis for new test configurations and assessment criteria. In 2007, ADAC began looking into the feasibility of international data collection. The idea of Global Accident Prevention was born. Three European partner clubs have begun pioneering the project (ÖAMTC, ANWB, and RACC). The aim is to set up an international accident research network to provide a steady stream of information on road accidents. The FIA Foundation supports ADAC in developing and coordinating this initiative.
Im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Verkehr, Bau und Wohnungswesen führt die Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) "Streckenbezogene Unfallanalysen auf BAB" durch. Für detaillierte Unfallanalysen einzelner BAB-Abschnitte sind Kenntnisse über den Zusammenhang zwischen (stündlicher) Verkehrsstärke und Unfallgeschehen von grundsätzlicher Bedeutung. Im Mittelpunkt der vorliegenden Untersuchung steht die Analyse des Zusammenhangs zwischen der Verkehrsstärke und dem Unfallgeschehen. Zum besseren Verständnis werden zusätzlich die Daten und Berechnungsgrundlagen sowie Rahmenbedingungen (z.B. zeitliche Einflüsse) thematisiert. Diese Punkte sind wesentliche Grundlagen streckenbezogener Unfallanalysen. Der Zusammenhang zwischen (stündlicher) Verkehrsstärke und Unfallgeschehen wurde unter Zuhilfenahme von stündlich und richtungsgetrennt vorliegenden Verkehrsstärkedaten der Dauerzählstellen auf BAB analysiert. Bei Verwendung von stündlichen Verkehrsstärken als Berechnungsgrundlage für die Unfallraten ergaben sich deutliche funktionale Zusammenhänge. Neben der Verkehrsstärke zeigen sich weitere Einflussfaktoren wie z.B. die zeitliche Verteilung der Unfälle. Besonders im Tagesverlauf nach der Unfallstunde ist ein deutlicher Zusammenhang zwischen Verkehrsstärke und Unfallrate zu beobachten. Im Rahmen der streckenbezogenen Unfallanalysen wird für die Berechnung von Raten der für alle Abschnitte verfügbare Querschnitts-DTV auf beide Fahrtrichtungen aufgeteilt. Dies erfolgt unter der Annahme, dass sich der Verkehr im Jahresmittel gleichmäßig auf beide Fahrtrichtungen verteilt. Durch Auswertung der fahrtrichtungsgenau vorliegenden DTV-Werte der Dauerzählstellen konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass bei 95% der Dauerzählstellen die Abweichung des fahrtrichtungsgenauen vom halben Querschnitts-DTV unter +/-5% liegt und somit die Unfallrate nur geringfügig verzerrt wird. Besonders hohe Abweichungen von +/-10% und mehr zeigten sich lediglich an 5 Zählstellen. In Abschnitt 7 werden die Grundlagen der Ermittlung signifikanter Unfallhäufungen beschrieben. Eine Voraussetzung für die statistische Ermittlung von Unfallhäufungen ist die Annahme, dass die berechneten Unfallraten weitestgehend unabhängig vom DTV sind. Diese Annahme wurde unter Zuhilfenahme richtungsgetrennt vorliegender Verkehrsstärkedaten der Dauerzählstellen auf BAB geprüft. Bei Verwendung von DTV-Werten (als Jahresmittelwerten) war eine Abhängigkeit zwischen Unfallraten und DTV lediglich bei sehr geringen DTV-Werten zu beobachten. Die geforderte Linearitätsbedingung ist bei Verwendung von DTV-Werten damit erfüllt. Ein weiteres Verfahren für die Ermittlung von auffälligen Bereichen im Straßennetz ist in den "Empfehlungen für die Sicherheitsanalyse von Straßennetzen-ESN" beschrieben. Neben der Fahrleistung wird bei diesem Verfahren zusätzlich die Schwere der Unfälle einbezogen, indem die Unfälle mittels Unfallkostensätzen bewertet werden. Durch den Vergleich der tatsächlichen Unfallkostendichte mit einer Grundunfallkostendichte werden als Ergebnis Abschnitte mit hohem Sicherheitspotential identifiziert. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurde das Verfahren erstmals bundesweit angewendet und mit den Ergebnissen der Ermittlung "Signifikanter Unfallhäufungen" verglichen. Erwartungsgemäß führen die unterschiedlichen Zielsetzungen der beiden Ansätze zu Unterschieden bei den identifizierten BAB-Abschnitten, die in den differierenden methodischen Ansätzen begründet liegen.
Vorgestellt wird ein neues Berichtsschema zur regelmäßigen Auswertung des Verkehrszentralregisters VZR, das im Auftrag der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen entwickelt wurde. Mit dem Berichtsschema ist es damit möglich, dem Verkehrszentralregister wesentlich erweiterte Informationen zur Beurteilung des Verkehrsdeliktgeschehens in Deutschland zu entnehmen. Die neu entwickelte VZR-Grundstatistik liefert in tabellarischer und grafischer Form wichtige und in dieser Fülle und Systematik bisher nicht erzielbare Informationen zum VZR-Bestand und zum VZR-Zugang, zur Verkehrsauffälligkeit und zum Rückfallgeschehen in einem Beobachtungszeitraum von 12 Monaten. Die aufbereiteten Daten beziehen sich auf Personen und auf Ereignisse.
Ziel dieses Forschungsvorhabens war es, das bisherige Gewichtungs- und Hochrechnungsverfahren für die örtlichen Unfallerhebungen in den Regionen Hannover und Dresden zu überprüfen und an die aktuellen Rahmenbedingungen anzupassen. Darüber hinaus sollten neue Möglichkeiten der gemeinsamen Hochrechnung von Ergebnissen aus beiden Erhebungsgebieten unter Berücksichtigung der aktuellen Datenlage, insbesondere in der amtlichen Unfallstatistik, untersucht und entsprechende statistische Verfahren entwickelt werden. Der Stichprobenplan der Erhebungen folgt einem zweistufigen Stichprobenverfahren. Tests mit einem zweistufigen Hochrechnungsverfahren der Hannover-Stichproben 2000 und 2001 auf die Gesamtheit Hannover haben jedoch ergeben, dass die theoretisch zu erwartenden Vorteile dieser zweistufigen Methode im Vergleich zur "einfachen Gewichtung" in der Praxis relativ gering sind. Unter Beibehaltung der bisherigen Gewichtungsprozedur (Anpassung an eine n-dimensionale Kontingenztabelle) wurden daher für die regionalen Hochrechnungen Dresden und Hannover alternative Methoden entwickelt, in der z.B. das Merkmal Ortslage durch die Unfallart ersetzt oder zusätzlich die Anzahl Unfallbeteiligter zur Gewichtung herangezogen wird. Leider erbringen diese Verfahren im Vergleich zur bisherigen (simultanen) Gewichtung nach Unfallschwere, Tageszeit und Ortslage nur wenige oder gar keine Verbesserungen der Anpassungsgenauigkeit bei Merkmalen der amtlichen Statistik, die nicht in die Gewichtung eingehen. Unabhängig vom Gewichtungsverfahren lässt die Abbildungsgenauigkeit bei einzelnen Variablen sehr zu wünschen übrig. Auf der Basis der Stichprobendaten 2000 wurde ferner noch ein Gewichtungsverfahren für Hochrechnungen auf das Bundesgebiet entwickelt und anhand der beiden Einzelstichproben sowie der gepoolten Stichprobe (Dresden plus Hannover) getestet. Die gepoolten Stichprobe zeigte die besten Ergebnisse. Allerdings ließen sich auch auf der Grundlage der gepoolten Daten nicht bei allen Merkmalen (gemeint sind hier Merkmale, die nicht Gewichtungsmerkmale sind) Verbesserungen des Fits erzielen. Es bleiben relativ große Abweichungen zwischen der gewichteten gepoolten Stichprobe und den bundesdeutschen Verteilungen. Es ist zu erwarten, dass auch bei vielen GIDAS Merkmale durch die Gewichtung keine essentielle Korrektur der Stichprobenverzerrungen erzielt werden kann. Insgesamt hat sich gezeigt, dass es auch mit alternativen, meist hierarchischen Gewichtungsverfahren nicht möglich ist, alle Merkmale, deren Verteilungen aus der amtlichen Statistik bekannt sind, mit hinreichender Genauigkeit an die Verhältnisse der Grundgesamtheit anzupassen. Es ist zu erwarten, dass sich dies bei den eigentlich hochzurechnenden originären GIDAS-Variablen ähnlich darstellt. Somit muss der Ansatz eines einheitlichen Verfahrens für alle Jahre und beide Erhebungsgebiete in Frage gestellt werden. Für besonders wichtige Fragestellungen sollte daher eine spezielle, auf das jeweilige Untersuchungsmerkmal abgestellte Gewichtung durchgeführt werden, wie dies exemplarisch am Beispiel der maximalen Kollisionsgeschwindigkeit gezeigt wurde. Schließlich werden im Bericht noch Empfehlungen zur Datenqualität und zu der Frage gegeben, wie sich das derzeit praktizierte Stichprobenverfahren im Hinblick auf die Gewinnung einer repräsentativen Stichprobe möglicherweise verbessern lässt.
The increasing economics in India has an enormous growth of its road traffic. As observed from official Indian accident statistics the number of road fatalities are one of the highest worldwide. In contrast to most industrialized nations they have an rapidly increasing trend. To come along with this trend it becomes more than essential to understand the traffic accident situation. The official Indian accident statistics gives a glimpse of only basic information. Therefore more detailed data is needed. By using In-depth accident data and officially representative statistics the current accident situation can be evaluated in India, if a suitable weighting methodology is considered. Hence in 2009/2010 a pilot study with the collaboration partner JP-Research India pvt. Ldt. was gathered in Tamil Nadu in south of India. In-depth accident investigations were done around the Coimbatore area on four highways. At first, the collected data is evaluated. Due to consequent and continuous further development based on the first approach a methodology similar to NASS/CDS/GES in the US and GIDAS in Germany was developed. Of course all relevant accident related parameters including pictures and severity information were collected. As a matter of fact based on scaled sketches and reconstruction benefit analyses can be done in order to analyze the accident scenery in India. As a first outcome influence from infrastructure, missing education and vehicle safety were identified as key parameters in order to reduce the number of accidents and casualties. To compare the accident situation against international standards an accident classification for left hand traffic was developed based on the German Insurance classification system. Looking into detail additional accident types were identified and added to create an Indian accident type catalogue. The positive results encouraged several OEMs to participate in this investigation and together with BOSCH a consortium was established in 2010/11. Within one year from beginning in May 2011 about 200 highway accidents were collected, reported and reconstructed using the new standard. Hence a first good overview of the accident situation is available for the Coimbatore Tamil Nadu area. The major target for establishing accident investigations is the extension towards other states of India and urban areas to achieve a better overview of the accident scenery. Therefore local and national authorities have to be embedded in order to strengthen the awareness against traffic safety.
The NHTSA-sponsored Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) has collected and analyzed crash, vehicle damage, and detailed injury data from over 4000 case occupants who were patients admitted to Level-I trauma centers following involvement in motor vehicle crashes. Since 2005, CIREN has used a methodology known as "BioTab" to analyze and document the causes of injuries resulting from passenger vehicle crashes. BioTab was developed to provide a complete evidenced-based method to describe and document injury causation from in-depth crash investigations with confidence levels assigned to the causes of injury based on the available evidence. This paper describes how the BioTab method is being used in CIREN to leverage the data collected from in-depth crash investigations, and particularly the detailed injury data available in CIREN, to develop evidence-based assessments of injury causation. CIREN case examples are provided to demonstrate the ability of the BioTab method to improve real-world crash/injury data assessment.
Unfortunately, there has been a high number of accident fatalities reported in the Czech Republic in recent years. There are many causes which have led to a growth in the number of road traffic accidents. Since 1990, traffic density has demonstrated an upward moving tendency, daily traffic-jams are on the increase in many cities and traffic capacity on roads and streets is not able to satisfy this increasing density. Moreover, many road users lack experience in terms of driving modern cars. The National Accident Study of the Czech Republic is based on the assumption that the year 2010 is considered as a pilot project with the testing operation of collecting and evaluating data from traffic accidents. From the beginning of 2011, a fully-functional structure of the Traffic Accident Research will be created and solid data generated. Based on this assumption, we hope to begin meaningful cooperation with foreign countries.
Nowadays, traffic accidents are recorded in historical databases. Regarding the huge quantity of data, the use of data mining tools is essential to help Experts, for automatically extracting relevant information in order to establish and quantify relations between severity and potential factors of accidents. An innovative approach is here proposed for an in depth investigation of real world accidents data base. Mutual information ratio based on conditional entropies is used to quantity the association strength between an accident outcome descriptor (injury severity) and other potential association factors. Information theoretic methods help to select automatically groups of factors mostly responsible of the severity of accident.
Injuries in motorbike accidents in correlation with protective clothes and mechanism of the accident
(2013)
This study deals with a possible connection between safety clothing / accident mechanism and injury severity in a state-wide traffic accident investigation with focus on light and small motorbike-involvement for accidents in the area of the Saarland in which the persons riding the bike have been injured or killed. An interdisciplinary team of medical scientists and engineers collected the medical and technical data as well as all the relevant traces of the accident on scene and in time. During twenty months of data collection a total of 401 cases could be gathered. Grave injuries were more common for the group of heavier motorcycles (>125 ccm). Motorcyclists had been polytraumatized only in the group where the accident was connected with a collision. Significant correlation between protective clothes and injury severity could only be found for protective gloves and protective trousers. The knowledge about mechanism of the accident, protective clothes and severity of injuries can be helpful for the improvement of road and motorcyclists' safety.
A national initiative from the vehicle manufacturers, safety system suppliers, the road administration and universities in Sweden took off in 2007. The aim was to develop a national investigation network and a methodology focusing on all phases of a crash (pre-crash, in-crash and post-crash) as well as all parts of the road transport system (road user, vehicle and road environment). The initiative is formally run as a project with the acronym INTACT (Investigation Network and Accident Collection Techniques). It was a three year pilot with the aim to develop methodologies for an extended national crash investigation activity. During the first year the INTACT partners agreed on the aim for the investigation and methods for retrieving the data were developed. During the second and third year the methodology was tested in real-world investigations and further refinement was made. The paper describes the methodology developed to obtain high qualitative in-depth road crash data.
A lot of factors are related to a road traffic accident; particularly human factors such as road use characteristic, driving maneuver characteristic and safety attitude are the major ones. As a random factor is also included, so it is necessary to minimize the contribution of a random factor to identify human factors related to a road traffic accident. There are several standpoints for traffic accident analysis, such as vehicle-based, location-based and driver-based. And it is effective to analyze driver-based traffic accident data for discussion on the relation between human factors and accidents. An integrated traffic accident database system was developed for analysis considering driver- accident and violation records by ITARD, and several studies were carried out for the evaluation. Useful data for discussion on the relation between types of collision and traffic violations, and the effect of accident experience to the following accident were obtained.
In der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) wurde die "Datenbank internationaler Verkehrs- und Unfalldaten" (INVUD) eingerichtet, in der internationale Daten zum Verkehrs- und Unfallgeschehen sowie zu den Einwohnerzahlen und Fahrzeugbeständen gesammelt und DV-gestützt verarbeitet werden. Ein erster Bericht über diese INVUD-Datenbank wurde bereits Anfang 1987 als Heft 152 der Forschungsberichte der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, Bereich Unfallforschung, veröffentlicht. Inzwischen ist der Ausbau der INVUD-Datenbank weit vorangeschritten. Seit Anfang 1988 besteht ein Kooperationsvertrag mit der Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften (KEG), in dessen Rahmen unter anderem der Kreis der Länder, deren Daten gesammelt werden, auf alle EG-Länder erweitert worden ist. Zu den Vorteilen der Kooperation mit der KEG gehört auch deren wirkungsvolle Unterstützung bei der Beschaffung noch fehlender Daten. Für die Zukunft wird im Rahmen des OECD Road Transport Research Programme geplant, dass die hier beschriebene INVUD-Datenbank als Kern einer "IRTAD - International Road Transport and Accident Data Base" auf alle OECD-Länder ausgedehnt wird und zur internationalen Nutzung gelangt. Nachdem die bisherigen Ausbauabschnitte der INVUD-Datenbank weitgehend abgeschlossen sind, wird mit dem vorliegenden Bericht der Sachstand zu Beginn des Jahres 1989 dokumentiert und eine Informationsbasis für künftige Daten-Interessenten und Nutzer bereitgestellt. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird neben der Vorgehensweise bei der Datenbeschaffung, Aufbau und Administration der Datenbank sowie insbesondere der Datenbestand und der Zugriff auf die Daten beschrieben.
Electronic Stability Program (ESP) aims to prevent the lateral instability of a vehicle. Linked to the braking and powertrain systems, it prevents the car from running wide on a corner or the rear from sliding out. It also helps the driver control his trajectory, without replacing him, in the case of loss of control where the driver is performing an emergency manoeuvrer (confused and exaggerated steering wheel actions). A new ESP function optimizes ESP action in curves with hard under steering (situations in which the front wheels lose grip and the vehicle slides towards the outside of the curve). A complementary feature prevents the wheels from spinning when pulling away and accelerating. The name given to the ESP system varies according to the vehicle manufacturer, but other terms include: active stability control (ASC), automotive stability management system (ASMS), dynamic stability control (DSC), vehicle dynamic control (VDC), vehicle stability control (VSC) or electronic stability Control (ESC). This paper proposes an evaluation of the effectiveness of ESP in terms of reduction of injur accidents in France. The method consists of 3 steps: - The identification, in the French National injury accident census (Gendarmerie Nationale only), of accident-involved cars for which the determination of whether or not the car was fitted with ESP is possible. A sample of 1 356 cars involved in injury accidents occurred in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 was then selected. But we had to restrict the analysis to only 588 Renault Lagunas. - The identification of accident situations for which we can determine whether or not ESP is pertinent (for example ESP is pertinent for loss of control accidents whilst it is not for cars pulling out of a junction). - The calculation, via a logistic regression, of the relative risk of being involved in an ESPpertinent accident for ESP equipped cars versus unequipped cars, divided by the relative risk of being involved in a non ESP-pertinent accident for ESP equipped cars versus unequipped cars. This relative risk is assumed to be the best estimator of ESP effectiveness. The arguments for such a method, effectiveness indicator and implicit hypothesis are presented and discussed in the paper. Based on a few assumptions, ESP is proved to be highly effective. Currently, the relative risk of being involved in an ESP pertinent accident for ESP-equipped cars is lower (-44%, although not statistically significant)rnthan for other cars.rn
The declining trend since 1991 in the number of killed people was broken in 2011 when overall 4 009 people died in traffic accidents in Germany. The question arises if there is a stagnating trend of fatalities in Germany in future? By breaking down the accidents with casualties towards a monthly view one can see a decreasing trend of fatalities in the warmer months especially since 2009. When comparing against winter months higher deviations are observed. In December 2011 an increase of 191 traffic deaths were registered (181 in 2010 compared to 372 in 2011). Further analyses of different accident influences were evaluated and their possibility of drastic change from one year to the other was determined. As seen weather- and environmental conditions are one of the major contributing factors and are one of the causes for the increased number of fatalities. To support the underlying assumption a model had been created to calculate the number of traffic deaths on a daily basis approach. As an input, road conditions projected through weather parameters and also different driving behaviors on weekdays or holidays were used. As a result, estimates of daily fatality with up to 75% precision can be achieved out of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 data. Further on it shows that weather and street conditions have a high influence on the overall resulting number of traffic accidents with casualties, and especially to the number of fatalities. Hence it is estimated that approximately 3 300 people were killed in traffic accidents in Germany in 2013 which would be again a reduction of another 13% compared to 2012. Therefore an answer to the question will be that the decreasing trend in traffic fatalities in Germany somehow is not broken when environmental conditions are included in national statistics. Their effects will become more visible in future accident statistics and it is estimated variances of 5% to 8% of the annual number of traffic fatalities in Germany will be seen.
This paper reviews briefly the evolution of the investigation of transport accidents from the early beginnings when individual events were studied but systematic data was not collected. In the transport modes other than on the roads, accident investigation early on, even of single events, was important in introducing safety improvements. Road accidents, however, evolved enormously with the growth of car ownership without any comparable political response to the consequent deaths and injuries, equivalent to what happened with the other modes. From the 1950s data bases started to contribute to our knowledge of the epidemiology of road traffic injuries, and in-depth sample studies have contributed much to the body of knowledge in the last 30 years. However, even the basic input and output variables of a crash, its severity and the seriousness of the outcomes in terms of injuries and their consequences are not complete or agreed upon. Issues of experimental design and sampling are discussed. It is proposed that the most important area for current research to address is the effect of population variations on injury outcomes. The need for the establishment of good data bases for active safety issues is emphasised with the consequent need for better links between the research community and the police.