Traffic deaths
A death is not considered a traffic death if the accident took place at a location which is not open to public traffic and other traffic; the accident occurred on a section of railway or tramway track which is not part of a public road and can solely be used by a train or tram due to its nature; the victim dies 30 days or more than 30 days after the accident; the dec eased has already been classified as a victim of ‘murder’ or ‘suicide’.
Out of the 629 traffic deaths in 2016, 34 persons were not registered in the Netherlands. These may have been foreign visitors who were using the Dutch road network for the purpose of work or holidaying. In the compilation of national traffic mortality statistics, data are combined which have been derived from three different sources: death cause certificates completed by medical practitioners, district Public Prosecutor files and traffic accident reports lodged by the police. By combining and integrating data from these three sources, any missing data can be supplemented in the various separate datasets.
The results of this integrative approach of the number of traffic deaths are available starting from calendar year 1996. Series with data from previous years can be obtained from Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. These time series are solely based on accident reports which were drafted by the police.