Dark numbers must come to light – Read the whole article

On Tuesday, a violent and tragic traffic accident on route 13 set the agenda in North Jutland.

Two young men died when a van and a lorry collided, and the main road in Himmerland was subsequently closed for several hours to give the rescue team and the car inspector peace of mind, so that the cause of the accident can be determined and thus part of the work to avoid similar accidents in the future.

Accidents of this nature naturally attract great public interest. And fortunately, the development of safer cars and road safety measures on busy roads has meant that the number of serious road accidents involving cars has fallen drastically over the past 20 years.

A fantastically important and gratifying development.

But now a new study by researchers at Aalborg University and with Aalborg Municipality singled out as an example shows that while there has been a great focus on serious accidents involving cars, the vast majority of serious traffic accidents go under the radar.

Accidents and accidents where no cars are involved are in most cases not registered with the police, and so they are not included in the statistics.

When they are not included in the statistics, the type of accidents with so-called soft road users is of course also not taken into account when starting prevention.

Until now, it has been thought that accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians were mostly in the category of minor scratches, but this turns out not to be the case. The study on Aalborg Municipality not only shows that there have been four times as many traffic accidents as appeared in the statistics. The accidents with soft road users also often have more serious injuries, because cyclists and pedestrians are not sitting comfortably and safely in a car with airbags.

That fallacy emphasizes how dangerous it is to rely on feelings instead of facts. In the extreme, fatal if the most effective use of money for prevention does not succeed, because the authorities do not have the full overview.

Dark numbers can cost lives. It is therefore good that the researchers from Aalborg University are now helping to bring important knowledge to light.

This is a leader. It was written by a member of our board of directors and expresses Nordjutske’s position.

2024-04-06 05:01:29
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