Experience from In-Depth Analysis of Road Accidents

Official road accident statistics are, in most countries, not sufficiently detailed to allow an in-depth analysis of accidents. In-depth studies try to provide a detailed reconstruction of events that lead to accidents and to identify the factors that caused injuries. According to Elvik (2010), the purpose of performing in-depth analyses of accidents is both to understand factors leading to accidents and to identify the best way to prevent accidents. In-depth studies of fatal accidents have a long history in Finland (VALT, 2004) and the United Kingdom (Staughton & Storie, 2000), but have more recently been introduced in Sweden (Sagberg & Assum, 2000) and Norway (Assum & Sørensen, 2010). In recent years, in-depth studies in Finland have focused on factors that influence the injury severity (Toivonen, 2006). Germany (Otte, 1994) and the Netherlands (Vollenhoven, 2001) also perform in-depth studies of accidents, as well as Denmark (Larsen, 2004).