The European Commission is adding to its library of European Road Safety Observatory road safety data and analytical resources with the publication of thematic reports on the use of seatbelts and child restraint systems; serious injuries through road crashes; and driver impairment due to alcohol, drugs and medicines.

The Commission is also publishing short “facts and figures” reports on the safety of Europe’s motorways; on the regional distribution of fatalities in Europe; and on young people and road safety.

The aim of these reports is to aid understanding of the causes and impacts of road crashes through providing recent statistics relating to specific road safety topics, with the ultimate aim of achieving “vision zero” of zero road deaths or serious injuries in Europe’s roads by 2050.

The European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO) provides reliable and comparable data on road crashes, in-depth analysis and information on road safety practices and policies in the EU. An evidence base composed of statistical reports, country profiles, thematic analysis and key performance indicators is essential to i) measure progress towards reducing deaths and serious injuries on EU roads, ii) identify and quantify road safety problems, iii) develop and evaluate the effectiveness of road safety measures at EU and national level, iv) to facilitate the exchange of experience between countries.

ERSO draws heavily on CARE, a Community database that has provided a high level of disaggregation on all road accidents (resulting in death or injury) in the EU Member States and EFTA countries since the early 1990s.

ERSO is part of the network of regional Road Safety Observatories (RSO) which is a global forum on-road safety data, policies and practices. It promotes collaboration between existing regional RSO, namely ERSO, OISEVI (Ibero-America), ARSO (Africa), APRSO (Asia and Pacific), WBRSO (Western Balkans) and the forthcoming EaPRSO (Eastern Partnership).

ERSO is managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport and is currently supported by VIAS (Belgium) and SWOV (Netherlands).

Source: European Commission