Road traffic accidents in Greece: recent trends (1981-1991).

Abstract

This study describes trends of road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Greece over the past 11-year period. All casualties that occurred in Greece during the period 1981-1991 are analyzed. Trends in severity (as judged by the proportion of fatal or serious casualties) are studied. The rate 'casualty per registered vehicle' is also used and is mainly based on the number of road users killed or seriously injured. The total number of deaths presents a considerable increase by about 32%, but an important reduction of serious injuries was observed during the same period. The number of fatal injuries increased significantly only in drivers whereas no such increase is observed in passengers and pedestrians. In all three categories of road users, serious injuries decreased significantly with a similar linear regression slope. RTAs in Greece are also becoming less severe in all categories of road users. Accidents per registered vehicle decrease significantly in all road user groups and age groups. The slope of this decrease is rather exponential, suggestion that any further increase of the number of registered vehicles will be followed by a similar increase of the number of casualties so that the rate will tend to remain stable. This represents a very challenging situation of how to keep the number of casualties as low - or, at least, as stable - as possible despite high vehicle densities. There is uncertainty about the factors that led to the observed decreases, as it was difficult to single out effects of specific measures, because of data limitations. An improved data collection system is necessary in order to enable a more thorough analysis of casualty trends not fully addressed in this study.