Belgium: Hospital data reveals four times more serious road injuries than police records
A new report from the Vias Institute has highlighted a large disparity in road safety data in Belgium, revealing that the number of traffic victims admitted to hospitals is nearly four times higher than those recorded in official police databases.
The study, titled Hospitalised Road Traffic Victims in 2023, underscores the persistent issue of under-reporting, particularly regarding single-vehicle crashes and vulnerable road users who often seek medical attention without police intervention.
In 2023, Belgian police recorded 3,270 people as seriously injured in their collision database. However, according to the Vias report, 14,343 victims were admitted to Belgian hospitals following a road crash. Of these patients, 12,676 (88 per cent) required at least one overnight stay, and 3,348 people (23 per cent) suffered injuries classified as MAIS3+, which are serious, life-changing injuries. This means that for every seriously injured person appearing in official police statistics, there are approximately three others whose injuries are severe enough to require hospitalisation but who never enter the official record.
This massive disparity is in line with what is already known about the limitations of police data. These findings reinforce the message of the recent ETSC PIN Flash report on serious injuries, which warned that relying solely on police reports provides an incomplete and misleading picture of road danger. As highlighted in that report, road injuries of all levels of severity often go unreported, particularly those involving pedestrians or cyclists where no other vehicle is involved.
The discrepancy is largely attributed to single-vehicle crashes. When a cyclist falls off their bike, the police are rarely called. Victims often transport themselves to emergency departments or are taken by ambulance without an official police report being filed. This data gap is a significant concern. Without accurate data on where and how these collisions occur, authorities may struggle to identify high-risk locations or implement effective infrastructure improvements.
The VIAS report highlights that cyclists and e-scooter riders are among the most likely to be missing from police statistics in Belgium. Cyclists, in particular, face a high risk of serious injury; the report notes that 35 per cent of hospitalised cyclists suffered injuries to their upper extremities, while 40 per cent of serious injuries were to the lower extremities. While the total number of hospitalised road victims has decreased by 10 per cent over the last decade, Vias warns that progress is slowing. The current rate of decline is insufficient to meet the ambitious targets set out in Belgium’s Federal Road Safety Plan and the broader EU Vision Zero goals.
ETSC has long advocated for the use of hospital data alongside police statistics in order to gather a more complete picture of serious injury data across Europe. Relying solely on police data often masks the true scale of the risks faced by pedestrians and cyclists in particular.