Road accident

A road accident is a Choc which takes place on the highway network between a travelling machine (Automobile, motor bike, bicycle, etc) and anything else or nobody and which generates human wounds and/or property damages, that this damage are caused with the vehicles, an element of the road (fitted, panels, barriers of protection, etc) or an element external with this one (building, urban furniture, cabin of telephone, tree).

Definitions

In order to facilitate to the international comparisons, in France, the inter-ministerial committee of the road safety of July 7th, 2004 adopted the principle of a harmonization of the definitions of gravity retained in the national file of the personal injuries with those adopted by our principal European neighbors. The law of of August 9th, 2004 relating to the public health policy, and in particular its article 28, returned thus to a future decree on the conditions of development of the statistics.

This decree was taken on March 27th, 2007. It specifies the definitions:

Accident

A personal injury (mortal and not mortal) of the road traffic is an accident which:

causes at least a victim, i.e. a user having required medical care;
occurs on a way open to public circulation;
implies at least a vehicle.

Users

A personal injury implies a certain number of users. Among those, one distinguishes:

unscathed : implied nondeceased and whose state does not require any medical care;
the victims : implied nonunscathed.

Among the victims, one distinguishes:

killed : any person who dies on the blow or in the thirty days which follow the accident;
wounded : not killed victims.

Among the casualties, one distinguishes:

hospitalized wounded : allowed victims as patient in a hospital more than 24 hours;
the slightly injureds : victims having been the subject of medical care but not having been allowed as patient at the hospital more than 24 hours.

Differences in definitions

Before 2005, the definition of the " tué" in France was the victim died on the blow or in the six days after the accident. From now on, it is about the victim died on the blow or in the thirty days which follow the accident. Concepts of " wounded léger" (casualty whose state requires between zero and six days of hospitalization or a medical care) and of " wounded grave" (casualty whose state requires more than six days of hospitalization), into force till the end of 2004 disappeared. One speaks now about " wounded hospitalisé" (allowed victim as patient in a hospital more than 24 hours) and of wounded not hospitalized (victim having been the subject of medical care but not having been allowed as patient at the hospital more than 24 hours). For the unscathed ones, not of change of course, they remain always implied in the accident and not of the victims.

It should be noted that the follow-up of the deaths at 30 days is not yet correctly organized on the scale of the whole of the French hospitals. One can in the same way question oneself if it is also well made in the whole of the other European countries.

Statistics

The road accidents kill 1,2 million people in the world each year, and wound 40 times of them more. The world records are held by the Russia with 12 accidents for 10.000 cars and 35.000 per annum dead. In France, for the year 2005, it was counted 4.990 killed and 105.006 wounded according to the provisional appraisal of the Road safety, is respectively a fall of -4,6% and -3,4% compared to 2004.

In Europe, one notes a rather regular reduction in the number of killed on the road since the years 1970. This evolution is not nevertheless homogeneous for the whole of the continent; the countries of Eastern Europe present a shift in time: the number of killed believed until the beginning of the year 1990, to decrease then from approximately 4% each year.

These comparisons must be done by keeping in memory the structural differences (size of the country, density and quality of the highway network, population, etc) and socio-economic (composition of the park, tourist presence of international traffic and, behavior of the users, etc).

Cost for the company

According to Quid, the overall costs of the personal injuries for the year 2005 in France rise to 12 billion euros, while the overall costs of " the insecurity routière" is evaluated to 24,9 billion euros.

Random links: