About care

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 analyzing 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(2 MB) defines the country variables and transformation rules.