Assessment of Safety of VRUs Based on Self-Reporting of Accidents and Near-Accidents

This report describes a study on self-reporting of accidents and near-accidents that was carried out to gain more knowledge about the safety of vulnerable road users, i.e. pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders.

In the study, the participants registered their accidents and near-accidents in monthly questionnaires for a period of nine months (01.09.2016 - 31.05.2017). The study was conducted in Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Sweden. In total, 2343 participants contributed to the study, mainly from Belgium and Denmark. Therefore, the results in this report are based on the Belgian and Danish data. The results of the study show that more than one third of the registered accidents are single accidents of cyclists and pedestrians. Inmost cases, the registered accidents are less severe than what is registered by the police or at the hospital.

The results indicate that as few as 2-7% of the participants, who were involved in an accident, have been in contact with the police. Furthermore, only 9% have registered that they had received treatment at the hospital or emergency room. This study thus indicates that self-reporting is a useful tool for gaining knowledge about a larger share of accidents. By including near-accidents as well, the amount of data can be further increased.