Road safety performance indicators and their explanatory value: A critical view based on the experience of Central European countries

Counts of road crashes and their victims represent essential information for road safety practitioners allowing them to analyse their spatial and temporal aspects. However, they cannot provide details on the factors causing road crashes. As a result, various road safety performance indicators (RSPIs) were introduced, making it possible to gather information on the effectiveness of interventions on road safety in given areas. However, analysis of the trends in road casualties in several Central European countries based on safety performance (measured by RSPIs) suggest that not even these indicators can provide full understanding of road safety trends, and, if they are applied generally without the required background information, this could even lead to serious misinterpretation of the trends in road casualties. Sudden breaks in long-term trends seem to be linked to the transition process and to certain legislative reforms. The exposure and socio-economic climate appear to have had a major impact on road crash outcomes. Various additional indicators describing organisational and structural aspects may be helpful, therefore, in better understanding and predicting the development in road safety for individual countries.