Afternoon rush hour and weekends claim most traffic victims
In 2004 881 people were killed in road traffic accidents in the Netherlands. Fatal accidents are most likely to occur in the afternoon and early evening peak hour traffic on weekdays and in the early hours of the morning in the weekends. Young people are relatively often involved in alcohol-related accidents.
Road deaths decreasing
The number of people killed on Dutch roads in 2004 was over 200 down on 2003. Traffic deaths have been decreasing overall for the last thirty years now. In 1972 the number of deaths was four times as high as in 2004.
Road deaths
Most victims killed on Saturday
On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in 2004, an average 2.2 people died in traffic accidents, compared with 2.8 on Saturdays. On Sundays too the number of victims was higher than on weekdays, at 2.6 on average.
Road deaths by day of accident, 2004
Most weekday accidents in afternoon rush hour
Just over 20 percent of traffic deaths fell in the morning rush hour and the rest of the morning. Between noon and six o’clock in the evening the number of victims was nearly twice as high: on average nearly 40 percent of the total daily deaths.
Road deaths by time of accident, 1996/2004
Many accidents in early hours of Saturday and Sunday
On weekdays, two-thirds of traffic victims were killed between six o’clock in the morning and six in the evening. The pattern is different in the weekends. Substantially more victims are killed in the early morning hours of Saturdays and Sundays. One quarter of victims are killed in the hours after midnight. On weekdays this is fewer than 10 percent.
Road deaths by moment of accident, 1996/2004
Alcohol-related accidents claim young people
Fifty to sixty road fatalities per year are alcohol-related. Most of these accidents occur in weekends, mainly on Friday night/Saturday morning and Saturday night/Sunday morning. One in eight 20-30 year-olds killed in road accidents were victims of accidents involving alcohol. This rate is twice as high as average.
Wim van den Berg and Ingeborg Deerenberg