Overview
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database(IRTAD) is a data collection maintained by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Transport Forum (ITF) in Paris, covering safety data in countries within and outside of Europe.
The database oparation started in 1988 in Federal Institution for Roads (BASt) in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, in response to demands for international comparative data. It has grown to be an important resource in comparing road safety metrics between various developed countries.
At present 37 countries are included: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea (South Korea), Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.
The following statistics are available for general use:
- Road user deaths by age, road network area or road use
- Traffic accidents with personal injuries by road network area
The ambition of IRTAD is to include as many countries as possible and to build and maintain a high quality database on road safety information.
IRTAD includes both a database and a working group.
- The IRTAD database includes accident and traffic data and other safety indicators for 29 countries.
- The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (known as the IRTAD Group) is an on-going working group of the Joint Transport Research of the OECD and the International Transport Forum. It is composed of road safety experts and statisticians from renowned safety research institutes, national road and transport administrations, international organisations, universities, automobilists associations, motorcar industry, etc. Its main objectives are to contribute to international co-operation on road accident data and its analysis.
A key to the success of IRTAD is the process through which the information is collected, as it comes directly from relevant national data providers in member countries. The data are provided in a common format, based on definitions developed and agreed by the IRTAD Group. This requires a clear understanding of national definitions in order to enhance international comparability and, where needed, the use of an appropriate correction factor.
Funding
Results
The development and use of the database is carried out by the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group. The database includes more than 500 data items, aggregated by country and year (from 1970) and shows up-to-date accident and relevant exposure data, including:
- Injury accidents classified by road network;
- Road deaths by road usage and age, by gender and age or by road network;
- Car fatalities by driver/passengers and by age;
- Hospitalised road users by road usage, age bands or road network;
- Accident involvement by road user type (e.g. HGVs, LGVs) and associated victim data;
- Risk indicators: fatalities, hospitalised or injury accidents related to population or kilometrage figures;
- Monthly accident data (three key indicators);
- Population figures by age bands;
- Vehicle population by vehicle types;
- Network length classified by road network;
- Kilometrage classified by road network or vehicles;
- Passenger kilometrage by transport mode;
- seat belt wearing rates of car drivers by road network;
- Area of state.
Policy implications
All IRTAD members have full access to the online IRTAD Database. The user-friendly interface generates various output formats (HTML, EXCEL, CSV) for further analysis. Tables and charts offer a quick overview of time series and recent safety trends.