Running off the road is among the types of car accident that occur most often and cause the most deaths. But the ranking also includes pedestrians being hit, which left around a hundred victims in 2021.
Last year was the second best in our country’s history as far as road accidents are concerned. There were 9% fewer fatal road accidents than in 2019. Even so, there were 921 accidents in which 1,004 people died and another 3,728 were seriously injured. Deaths in head-on collisions fell by 22% compared with 2019; and those who lost their lives in run-off-road accidents fell by 7%.
Running off the road, however, remains the most common type of accident, accounting for 39% of deaths. Last year 395 deaths were recorded in this type of accident, while the head-on collisions recorded caused 193 fatalities. This is the most frequent type of collision.
First of all, it is worth distinguishing between the concepts of crash and collision. A crash involves a moving vehicle striking a stationary object, while in a collision two moving vehicles strike each other. Collisions can be rear-end -rear and multiple- or head-on, as well as side and front-side.
How many types of collision are there?
Accidents can be single-vehicle, with only one vehicle involved, ending in crashes, rollovers or falls. Collisions -rear-end, side impacts, sideswipes-, on the other hand, are multiple accidents involving several traffic units, as happens in pile-ups. Collisions of any kind can be very violent because of speed.
Running off the road does not necessarily end in a crash or collision, and can be ordinary, if it happens on the same level, or with a drop, if it happens onto a lower or higher level. Roadside assistance services play a fundamental role when a vehicle goes over an edge; also in rollovers.
In these cases we are talking about the most spectacular and laborious rescues, especially when large vehicles are involved. A rollover is partial if a wheel is touching the ground, lateral if the vehicle is resting on one of its sides, and full when the car ends up with all its wheels in the air; it is end-over-end if it flips over its front, and a barrel roll if it rolls sideways.
In pedestrian accidents, on the other hand, vulnerable elements come into play, such as the pedestrians themselves. Their phases are contact, fall, approach, compression and dragging. In recent years the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) has paid particular attention to this type of accident, as well as to those involving vulnerable road users in general.