Accidents and violence are a major public health problem, killing more than a quarter of a million people in the EU-27 each year and causing around 42 million injuries that need hospital treatment. In Europe, injuries are the fourth most common cause of death, after cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and respiratory diseases.

Today, EuroSafe has released the latest statistics on injuries due to accident and violence in the EU: ‘Injuries in the European Union – Statistics Summary 2005 – 2007’. The report reveals that each year a staggering 7 million people are admitted to hospital and 35 million people are treated as hospital outpatients as a result of an accident or violence related injury.

The 2009-report “Injuries in the EU” presents data collected over the years 2005-2007. It also highlights injury data related to major risk groups and injury causes as identified in the EU-Council recommendation on injury prevention and safety promotion(3): children, adolescents, senior citizens, pedestrians/ bicyclists, sporting activities, consumer products, interpersonal violence and self-harm.

Key facts and figures from the report

Fatal injuries

Þ Every two minutes someone dies of a fatal injury – this adds up to a quarter of a million injury deaths each year within the EU.

Þ There is a huge difference in injury fatalities throughout the EU. More than 100,000 lives could be saved each year if every country in the EU-27 reduced its injury mortality rate to the same level as in the country that currently has the lowest rate of fatal injuries in the EU.

Non-fatal injuries

Þ Each year, a massive €15 billion is being spent on hospital and medical costs just treating the injury casualties admitted to hospital.

Þ Three quarters of all injuries occur at home or in leisure time.

Þ As to road traffic and work related injuries, the trend is fortunately levelling off over the past few years, but for home and leisure injuries the trend is still rising.

Malta in Focus:

Although the magnitude of the injury issue is evident to most governments, half of the EU-member states still lack adequate injury data to guide their prevention actions. This is not the case for Malta which was one of the first countries to pilot and begin actively collecting data on accidents and injuries through the Injury Database housed in the Department of Health Information and Research. Data collection began in 2004.

Facts and Figures for Malta –

Fatal Injuries:

Þ The injury mortality rate in Malta is 26.9 per 100 000 inhabitants which account for 3.9% of all causes of death in Malta. These are both well below the EU-27 average where the injury mortality rate stands at 41.4 per 100 000 inhabitants which account for 5.1% of all causes of death in the EU.

Þ The most vulnerable road users in Malta are motorcyclists with 23% of road fatalities being amongst this type of road user. The proportion of road fatalities amongst pedestrians is however only marginally lower then that for motorcyclists. The proportion of road fatalities amongst motorcyclists and the proportion amongst pedestrians as a total of all road fatalities in Malta, are higher then the EU-27 average. In fact the proportion of road fatalities amongst motorcyclists in Malta was the highest amongst all countries participating in the EURO-SAVE project.

For further details on this report, one may access the EU Injury Database Website:

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/idb/

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