Traffic crashes kill and injure people worldwide on a massive scale. This doesn’t happen ‘by accident’; it’s a consequence of the political choice to design our public spaces for fast and efficient movement from A to B. However, as a society, we seem not to view traffic crashes as a major social issue and a human tragedy, and we rarely address the systemic causes. This is partly sustained by the limited journalistic coverage of traffic crashes. The human suffering is barely described; we often talk about vehicles rather than people (‘van hits car’), and traffic crashes are seen as ‘accidents’ rather than the result of political policy.

With this website, we want to show how the media report on traffic crashes and initiate a change. We collect news articles and data on framing. To make this data as complete and representative as possible, we need your help. All website visitors can contribute by adding a news report and answering a few short questions about the framing. Click here for an explanation.

If we raise enough awareness together, we can help ensure that a safe, peaceful, and social public space becomes a priority again, and that traffic victims are once more seen as people.

More (scientific) background information on the causes and framing of traffic accidents:

Scientific article ‘Framing systemic traffic violence’ by Prof. Dr. Marco te Brömmelstroet

Column (in Dutch) ‘Our streets are designed in a way that allowed five children to die in a week. That is a choice’ by Thalia Verkade

Journalistic article (in Dutch) ‘Van hits car, traffic jam after accident. And what about the people?’ by Thalia Verkade