‘Many more accidents in 2021’ and ‘1300 more serious road casualties in 2021’, other media headlines. And that’s right. But they do not say that 2021 was only bad compared to the corona year 2020. Because if we go further back in the figures, we see that 2021 continues the favorable trend of fewer and fewer accidents and injuries in Dutch traffic.
Smart Traffic Accident Reporting (STAR) is a collaboration between, among others, the police, Rijkswaterstaat, the ANWB and the Research Foundation for Traffic. It recorded 68,704 traffic accidents with material damage last year, an increase of 8 percent from 2020, when there were 63,490 accidents. However, compared to the years before, 2021 was not bad at all. In 2019 there were 79,214 accidents with damage, in 2018 81,697 and in 2017 even 87,392.
More accidents in 2021, but still declining
The same goes for accidents where at least one person was injured. Last year there were more than 1,300 more than in 2020 (17,842 compared to 16,540), but still a lot less than in 2019, 2018 and 2017, when the minimum was almost 18,200. The number of road deaths decreased slightly in 2021 – from 496 a year earlier to 478 – and the trend of fewer and fewer victims is continuing. In the three years before that, the number of deaths was always above 510.
By far the most people are killed and injured on Friday evenings
According to the police, most accidents are the result of speeding, mobile phone distraction and/or alcohol or drug use. It is striking that on Friday evening the most collisions take place and the most injuries and deaths occur. Strangely enough, the morning rush hour is much less ‘dangerous’ than the evening rush hour. You would think that people are still sleepy behind the wheel early in the morning, but apparently the trip home after a long day at work is disastrous for concentration.