CARE European Road Accident Database

CARE is a Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury (no statistics on damage - only accidents)

CARE is a Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury (no statistics on damage - only accidents). The major difference between CARE and most other existing international databases is the high level of disaggregation, i.e. CARE comprises detailed data on individual accidents as collected by the Member States. This structure allows for maximum flexibility and potential with regard to analysing the information contained in the system and opens up a whole set of new possibilities in the field of accident analysis.

The purpose of CARE system is to provide a powerful tool which would make it possible to identify and quantify road safety problems throughout the European roads, evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, determine the relevance of Community actions and facilitate the exchange of experience in this field.

The Council decided on 30 November 1993 the creation of a Community database on road accidents ( Council Decision 93/704/EC, Oj No L329 of 30.12.1993, pp. 63-65).

This database at Community level (CARE - Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe) would make it possible to identify and quantify road safety problems, evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, determine the relevance of Community actions and facilitate the exchange of experience in this field.

National data sets should be integrated into the CARE database in their original national structure and definitions, with confidential data blanked out. The Commission provides a framework of transformation rules allowing CARE to provide compatible data.

A glossary [750 KB] defines the country variables and transformation rules.

Data availability
Country	Data availability	Remark
Belgium	1991-2009
Bulgaria		not yet available
Czech Republic	2005-2009
Cyprus	2004
Denmark	1991-2009
Germany	2000-2009
Estonia	2005-2009
Eire/Ireland	1991-2008
Greece	1991-2009
Spain	1991-2009
France	1991-2009
Italy	1991-2009
Latvia	2006-2009
Lithuania		not yet available
Luxembourg	1991-2009
Hungary	2003-2009
Malta	2005-2009
Netherlands	1991-2009
Austria	1991-2009
Poland	2005-2009
Portugal	1991-2009
Romania	1999-2009
Slovenia	2000-2009
Slovakia	2005-2009
Finland	1991-2009
Sweden	1991-2009
United Kingdom	1991-2009

History

The first phase of the project (1988 - 1993) consisted of a feasibility study for the creation of CARE database which led to a positive result and thus, to the European Council decision of December 1993 for the creation of a disaggregate road accident database.
The second phase of the project (1993 - 1996) concerned the pilot operation of the CARE database , during which, CARE had to deal with all operational problems and be ready for an overall evaluation. The positive results of this evaluation opened the way for the further development of CARE into an integrated information system.
The third phase of the project (1996 -1999) concerned the harmonisation of the data contained inside the database allowing for international comparisons and exchange of experience. On this purpose, the compatibility of a number of data variables and values have been thoroughly examined and a set of 38 variables containing 488 common-definition values has been proposed.
The fourth phase of the project (1999 - today) concerns the full operation of the system.
During the fifth phase of the project (2005 - today), data from the Members States that joined the European Union in May 2004 and January 2007 plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are also integrated in the database.