INTRAS: Inégalités en sécurité routière / Inequalities in traffic safety

Financing agency: BELSPO (2013-2017)

Other partners: BRSI, Hasselt University

Supervisor: Mario Cools

Content

In health research extensive evidence is found on socioeconomic and cultural differences on health outcomes. One of these health concerns are traffic injuries which impact is expected to increase worldwide. As in other health domains inequalities are found in accident involvement. Again underprivileged groups are the most vulnerable. Injury research however still lacks explanatory models on how contextual and individual factors contribute to injury causation.

The main objective for this study is therefore to reveal some of these mechanisms that explain the differences that occur in road accident involvement in Belgium. Since no studies have been conducted on the differences in road accident involvement in Belgium by different socioeconomically and culturally defined groups, this will also be part of this research proposal.

Apart from the valorisation 3 work packages are defined. The first work package involves the conceptualization and the exploration of the extent of the problem in Belgium. The second work package goes deeper into the underlying mechanisms that give cause to the inequalities found in work package 1. Analyses in these first 2 work packages require data that are available at different levels of disaggregation. In work package 3 methodological issues are addressed to combine these data in such a manner that a maximum of information can be obtained from them.

The field of traffic safety is interdisciplinary by nature since it derives from the complex interaction between all sorts of environmental and human factors. The interdisciplinary is reflected in the project team with researchers from different backgrounds such as health & social psychology, sociology, transportation sciences, and statistics. The outcome of this project might allow practitioners as well as policy makers to develop a more evidence-based view on the extent to which socio-economic and cultural differences affect road safety. The finished product of research will consist of a scientific report covering the findings obtained in the three work packages described above.