International Benchmarking

An important part of the programme is benchmarking - identifying and understanding differences in accident risk between countries. Standardisation of EuroRAP methodology enables such comparisons to be made.

In Britain and the Netherlands motorways perform substantially better than ordinary divided (dual carriageway) roads, whereas in Sweden and Spain the differences are less marked. Standard two-lane (single carriageway - one lane in each direction) roads perform much less well compared with motorways in all countries, especially in Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

The graphs below show the fatal collision rates per billion vehicle kilometres for different types of roads.

Motorway

Fatal collision rates on Spanish motorways are five times that of the Republic of Ireland, and seven times that of the Netherlands and Sweden, the countries with the bestperforming motorways. This is due in part to the greater variation in Spanish motorway standards and poor seat-belt usage.

Dual Carriageway

With the exception of Spain, fatal collision rates are at least twice that of motorways in all countries surveyed. This rises to four times in Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. Surface-level junctions on dual carriageways explain much of this difference.

Single Carriageway

Single carriageways have the highest fatal collision rate in all countries surveyed, being around five times that seen on motorways and twice that of dual carriageways. All countries show great variation in risk rates on different single carriageway roads with different standards of safety detailing.

For more transport safety statistics from around the world go to the iRAP International Transport Statistics Database.