All traffic related deaths are not "accidents" -: an analysis of official Swedish statistics

In 1997 the Swedish Parliament decided, in accordance with the so-called Vision Zero, that one official goal for the national traffic safety effort is that the number of traffic fatalities in the year 2007 must not exceed 270. In order to monitor efforts toward this hard-won goal, it is of course of utmost importance that official statistics on traffic deaths are reliable. In a meticulous analysis of all 580 officially registered traffic deaths in Sweden in 1999, we found that 490 were true accidental deaths, while 18 were suicides, 12 were deaths due to indeterminate causes, 59 were natural deaths and 1 case was not possible to evaluate due to missing data. Thus, only 84% of the officially registered >>accidental traffic deaths<< were bona fide accidents. In order to enhance the reliability of the official statistics, we suggest that - regulations concerning police investigation and medicolegal autopsy of all unnatural deaths be adhered to - all deaths reported to the Swedish National Road Administration should be checked in the database of autopsied cases in the National Board of Forensic Medicine in order to exclude natural deaths - the time delay (1.5 years) to complete the official Cause-of-Death Register be shortened - criteria for the classification of manner of death in "borderline" cases be suggested for international acceptance.