Accidents (at home, work, at play or on the road) are a major cause of death, injury, disability and work absence. "Accidents" is one of the key areas of the Government's White Paper Saving Lives - Our Healthier Nation and targets have been set (and adopted locally) for accidents in high risk age groups: under 15, 15 to 24 and over 65.

The Government aims to reduce the death rate from accidents by at least a fifth and to reduce the rate of serious injury from accidents by at least a tenth by the year 2010.

The causes of accidents are varied and often complex. Several factors seem important such as living conditions, the environment, social deprivation, age, seasonal variation, stress, alcohol, drugs, substance misuse awareness, attitude and knowledge.

In Hertfordshire the collection of data is inadequate, causing a major handicap in detecting trends and problems, assessing costs and in targeting, planning and evaluating accident prevention activities and services.

Many accident prevention initiatives are being carried out within Hertfordshire by a wide variety of organisations and agencies. This includes both statutory and non-statutory.

Monitoring and evaluating accident prevention intervention is a vital component of accident prevention work. However, the measurement of how many accidents have been avoided is difficult, as there is no visible evidence.