Community Road Accident Database (CARE) developments, November 2003

The Community Road Accident Database (CARE) was first published on the Internet in July 2002. Since then it has been improved and expanded with the addition of new data, new categories of information, and new graphs. The home page at http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/home/care/index_en.htm describes the aims of the CARE database and presents a table of fatalities either in actual figures or as a percentage rate of the population. This data includes figures from the new member states. Main figure data for the candidate countries was added in September 2003 but is not complete. It is generally shown in green and is annotated as having been extracted from national statistical publications. Clicking on the graph icon presents the data in graph format with a summary covering 1970-2000 and an overview from 1991-2000. Only current member states' data is presented here.

To search for further data, select Statistics from the left menu then choose from the drop-down menus on the next screen. The country menu lists only the current member states so the additional data on the accession states is not yet searchable. The category menu offers the options person class (which displays as driver, passenger or pedestrian when the data is presented), gender, age group and vehicle group. Once you have made your selections click on “Show table” or “Show graph”. Tables present data from 1991-2000 and then give a further breakdown by area type into inside or outside an urban area. Notes explain missing data. The graphs work only when a single country has been selected, not for the “all countries” option, but with that exception they are now available for all the categories. You could for example display either a table or a graph showing the number of pedestrian fatalities in France outside urban areas. Further category options are to be added to the database in due course.

As well as the statistical data there is a glossary of definitions used by different countries, which can be reached from the main menu on the home page. The links section is also helpful, taking you through to international organisations such as Eurostat, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport as well relevant national sites.