Hvor mange kommer til skade i trafikken?

-estimering af antal personskader efter trafikulykker i Danmark baseret på selvrapportering igennem en befolkningsundersøgelse

Abstract

It is well known that Denmark's official traffic accident statistics with around 550 personal injuries/million capita/year is associated with a large number of underreporting. In a population survey among 5,532 representatively selected Danes aged or over 18, we have estimated a more accurate accident rate. The study shows that the best estimate is that for every million inhabitants aged 18 or over in Denmark, 14,637 each year are injured in traffic to an extent that they go to an emergency room, to their own doctor or call the “Out-of-hours medical service”. Almost half of them are absent from work or school and a third receive rehabilitation in connection with the accident. 72% of those injured are soft road users, and 68% of accidents occur in urban areas. This is in clear contrast to the official accident statistics, where cyclists and pedestrians make up only 36% of the injured, and accidents in urban areas only 53% of all personal injury accidents. One of the consequences of the large number of unreported accidents may be that the accident prevention work is downgraded, and at the same time the work carried out places great emphasis on car accidents in the countryside - because these accidents are known - and little emphasis on accidents with vulnerable road users in the cities - because these not known.