The analyses presented in this paper can support further improvement of road safety policy. Countermeasures could for example be focused at reducing skull and brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities, as these injuries are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties.

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The EU research project SafetyCube pays specific attention to serious road injuries, defined as nonfatal road traffic casualties with an injury severity level of MAIS3+. By means of surveys, information was collected on current practices concerning the estimation of the number of MAIS3+ casualties and on costs related to serious road injuries in different European countries. Moreover, the effect of differences in practices on the estimated number of MAIS3+ casualties was investigated by applying different methods to the same data. Finally, by means of a literature review, analysis of additional case studies, and burden of injury calculations, health impacts of serious road injuries were investigated. This paper presents six main lessons learned from these activities. Practices concerning the estimation of the number of MAIS3+ casualties differ between countries; some countries apply correction factors to police data, other countries use hospital data, and a third group of countries uses linked police and hospital data. Practices also differ concerning the selection of MAIS3+ road traffic injuries within hospital data. Differences in methodology appear to affect the MAIS3+ estimate. Therefore, one should be careful when comparing figures from different countries. The SafetyCube guidelines can support further harmonization. It is important to reduce the number of serious road injuries because injuries can have major impacts on a casualty’s life and pose a burden to society. About 75% of the MAIS3+ road traffic casualties are not fully recovered 3 years postcrash. Moreover, serious road injuries cost countries up to 2.7% of their gross domestic product.

(1) Background: Passenger vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) functionalities are becoming more prevalent within vehicle fleets. However, the full effects of offering such systems, which may allow for drivers to become less than 100% engaged with the task of driving, may have detrimental impacts on other road-users, particularly vulnerable road-users, for a variety of reasons. (2) Crash data were analysed in two countries (Great Britain and Australia) to examine some challenging traffic scenarios that are prevalent in both countries and represent scenarios in which future connected and autonomous vehicles may be challenged in terms of safe manoeuvring. (3) Road intersections are currently very common locations for vulnerable road-user accidents; traffic flows and road-user behaviours at intersections can be unpredictable, with many vehicles behaving inconsistently (e.g., red-light running and failure to stop or give way), and many vulnerable road-users taking unforeseen risks. (4) Conclusions: The challenges of unpredictable vulnerable road-user behaviour at intersections (including road-users violating traffic or safe-crossing signals, or taking other risks) combined with the lack of knowledge of CAV responses to intersection rules, could be problematic. This could be further compounded by changes to nonverbal communication that currently exist between road-users, which could become more challenging once CAVs become more widespread.