The European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO) provides reliable and comparable data on road crashes, in-depth analysis and information on road safety trends, practices and policies in the EU. An evidence base composed of statistical reports, country profiles, thematic analysis and key performance indicators is essential to i) measure progress towards reducing deaths and serious injuries on EU roads, ii) identify and quantify road safety problems, iii) develop and evaluate the effectiveness of road safety measures at EU and national level, iv) to facilitate the exchange of experience between countries.
ERSO draws heavily on CARE, a Community database that has provided a high level of disaggregation on all road accidents (resulting in death or injury) in the EU Member States and EFTA countries since the early 1990s.
ERSO is part of the network of regional Road Safety Observatories (RSO) which is a global forum on road safety data, policies and practices. It promotes collaboration between existing regional RSO, namely ERSO, OISEVI (Ibero-America), ARSO (Africa), APRSO (Asia and Pacific), WBRSO (Western Balkans) and the forthcoming EaPRSO (Eastern Partnership).
ERSO is managed by the EU’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport and is currently supported by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) in the Netherlands and Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit (KFV), Austria