Safety performance indicators

Safety performance indicators provide a means by which policymakers can ensure that their actions are as effective as possible and represent the best use of public resource. These are defined as any measurement that is causally related to crashes or injuries, used in addition to a count of crashes or injuries, in order to indicate safety performance or understand the process that leads to crashes. Among the road safety performance indicators most commonly used are those that relate to behavioural characteristics such as speed levels, the rate of drink driving and the use of seat belts. In addition, a number of infrastructure, vehicle or trauma-related indicators are relevant. These enable monitoring of the impact of a measure or programme and enable early, target-oriented adjustments of specific interventions. In addition, they allow for a more detailed understanding of the reasons for safety problems than is possible by looking at crash frequency alone [24] [51].