Abstract

The Belgian situation in road safety is one of the poorer in European Union. Moreover, the barometers of road safety show, between 2006 and 2007, increases of 4.6% in accidents and 4.3% of death. Beside this increase in mortality, they contribute to an important part of morbidity. The objective of this study is to describe the epidemiology of injuries reported in health surveys (with a focus on road injuries). The data came from the Health Survey 1997, 2001 and 2004 conducted by the Scientific Institute of Public Health with Belgians aged 15 and more. The frequency of all causes accidents (who required a medical consultation) increased from 4.7% in 1997 to 8.0% in 2004. Among them, accidents on public roads increased by 12.8% in 1997 to 24.0% in 2004. In 2004, the frequency of accidents is found highest among 15 to 24 years (28.7%), 25–44 years and 65 years and over (29.2% in these two categories). The lesions most commonly found are fractures (31.0%), contusions (31.0%) and wounds (21.0%). We can conclude that descriptive population studies provide valuable information which should provide additional data to those given by police source. The liking with hospital databases allows greater precision on the severity and the evolution of trauma. This step will have a more global view on the importance of road trauma