ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN GREECE - RECENT TRENDS (1981-1991)

This study describes trends of road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Greece over the past Ii-year period. All casualties that occurred in Greece during the period 1981-1991 are analyzed. Trends in severity (as judge d by the proportion of fatal or serious casualties) are studied. The r ate 'casualty per registered vehicle' is also used and is mainly based on the number of road users killed or seriously injured. The total nu mber of deaths presents a considerable increase by about 32%, but an i mportant reduction of serious injuries was observed during the same pe riod. The number of fatal injuries increased significantly only in dri vers whereas no such increase is observed in passengers and pedestrian s. In all three categories of road users, serious injuries decreased s ignificantly with a similar linear regression slope. RTAs in Greece ar e 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, sug gestion 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 chal lenging situation of how to keep the number of casualties as low - or, at least, as stable - as possible despite high vehicle densities. The re is uncertainty about the factors that led to the observed decreases , as it was difficult to single out effects of specific measures, beca use of data limitations. An improved data collection system is necessa ry in order to enable a more thorough analysis of casualty trends not fully addressed in this study.