ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the needs for such a system and the approach that is being adopted to design best practice guidelines for Europe for implementation in the development and management of road accident data capture processes, and in the subsequent use of any resulting data. The number of people killed and injured on the roads started to decrease considerably from 2002 onwards, with improvements year on year for 2003 and 2004. Despite these improvements in injury outcomes, it is estimated that 97% of all socioeconomic costs for transport accidents within the European are as a result of road accidents, and that 97% of the transport related fatalities occur in the road sector. Regarding the legal framework of accident investigation at European level, the issue is fairly well addressed in the more public transport modes, and it is interesting to examine the accident statistics across the main transport modes.
