Every Accident is One Too Many Every Accident is One ... - UNECE

Chapter 2
The Government also answered the Road Safety Commission’s
call, e.g. by preparing the 1997 action plan ‘Every
accident is one to many’. This action plan was the first
document in Denmark to formulate the vision that road
accidents are unacceptable.
This overall vision has full support from the Road Safety
Commission.
Road safety is one of the five main themes of the
Government’s Public Health Programme. Road accidents
represent one of the crucial factors serving to reduce mean
life expectancy in Denmark, as they often involve children
and young people.
Road accidents come fourth on a listing of the most
frequent causes for loss of life before the age of 75 in
Denmark. This is to say that improved road safety and a
significant reduction in the number of fatal road accidents
are important focus areas in efforts to increase mean life
expectancy in Denmark.
Denmark has significantly more fatal road accidents than
those countries usually used for comparison, and we lose
more ‘man-years’ to road accidents. In Denmark, more than
9 out of 100,000 inhabitants are killed on the roads,
whereas the corresponding figures for Sweden, Norway,
and United Kingdom are 6 to 7 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Thus, the desired reduction of at least 40 per cent in the
number of deaths and serious injuries during the next
twelve years must be seen in the context of the trends for
road fatalities in those countries normally used for
comparison. What can be done in Sweden, Norway and
United Kingdom should certainly be possible in Denmark as
well. Even in the Netherlands, where the population
density is greater and the available space correspondingly
smaller, they have managed to organise traffic in a way
that gives rise to significantly fewer deaths.
Danish traffic is increasing. For example, car transport went
up by 2.5 per cent in 1998. During the period from 1980 to
1998, total road use went up by 80 per cent. All else being
equal, more car traffic entails a risk of more road accidents.
The fact that this increase in car traffic has actually taken
place at the same time as the number of deaths and
injuries on Danish roads has fallen can largely be
attributed to the efforts made during this period to improve
road safety. These improvements include new road design
and construction, safer car design, measures targeted at
road user behaviour, more checks and control, etc.
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Deaths per 100,000 inhabitants
It is also significant in this context that the greatest
increase in traffic has occurred on the main road network -
the larger roads. This road network includes the safest
roads - such as the motorways - and we know from accident
statistics that when more traffic is added to a crowded
road, accident rates do not go up at the same rate.
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10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Sweden
United Kingdom
Norway
The Netherlands
Finland
Denmark
Germany
France
Figure 3. The number of deaths on the roads per inhabitant in
various countries
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