Abstract

The objective of this study is to demonstrate Portugal’s evolution regarding the decrease of road traffic accidents causalities, between 2010 and 2016.

The data analysis was based on national official reports from the Ministry of Health, the National Road Safety Authority and the National Statistics Institute.

The number of road traffic accidents which caused victims decreased from 35 426 in 2010 to 32 299 in 2016 (9% reduction). The number of deaths within 30 days due to road traffic accidents decreased from 2010 (n=937) to 2016 (n=563) which represents an approximate 40% reduction. Severe injuries due to road traffic accidents between 2010 (n=2 475) and 2016 (n=1 999) decreased 19%. In 2016 the number of deaths within 30 days due to road traffic accidents were composed by 21.5% run-overs, 37.3% collisions and 41.2% running off road situations. Between 2010 and 2016 there was a decrease in the percentage of run-overs (34% reduction), running off road situations (40% reduction) and collisions (42.3% reduction).

The implemented policies to tackle road traffic accidents in Portugal, namely the enforcement of surveillance campaigns and awareness campaigns for safety behaviours in the road, allowed Portugal to overcome the national proposed goals. The National Road Safety Strategy (ENSR) target for 2015 was to decrease road accidents associated deaths to 62 deaths per million inhabitants. Portugal has overcome this target by achieving only 60 deaths per million inhabitants in 2015. The new target for 2020 is to reduce road accidents associated deaths to under 41 deaths per million inhabitants and to under 178 seriously injured per million inhabitants.