The speed at which emergency services respond is crucial for the survival of road accident victims. The Vias Institute therefore analyzed the time elapsed between answering the emergency call after an accident with injury and the arrival of emergency services at the scene.
In Belgium, emergency services arrive at their destination within 12 minutes (11 minutes and 42 seconds, to be precise) on average, in half of cases. Since 2021, this value has improved by around 2.5 minutes. However, intervention times vary significantly across regions and densities.
Fastest help in Brussels
The intervention time is shortest in Beerse (approximately 7.5 minutes) and longest in Sint-Genesius-Rode (more than 17 minutes). In 95% of cases, rescue teams arrive within 26 minutes and 49 seconds. Only 5% of interventions take longer than 27 minutes.
Waiting times are generally shorter in Brussels than in Flanders and Wallonia. Victims of traffic accidents receive the fastest help in the Brussels-Capital Region: the median waiting time is just over 10 minutes.
Help is slowest to arrive in the Walloon region (median waiting time of 12 minutes and 40 seconds), and the Flemish region is in between (average 11 minutes and 30 seconds).
Longer intervention time in sparsely populated areas
The municipalities where help arrives most quickly usually have a hospital or fire station on their territory, allowing ambulance services to be rapidly deployed. The best-performing municipalities include Beerse, Oostende, and Malle; among the worst-performing are Sint-Genesius-Rode, Deinze, and Nazareth. The intervention time is 60% longer in sparsely populated areas.
Night times also cause delays. Response times are slightly longer at night (average of 12’30”) than during the day (average of 11’40”), probably because emergency services are less readily available at night.
According to Vias, the speed of intervention is often decisive. In the case of severe bleeding, for example, most deaths occur within the first 30 minutes after an accident. Every minute can therefore be essential for survival.
Priority vehicles
Every accident is one too many, but when one does occur, it’s crucial that emergency services can arrive quickly and safely, concludes Jean-Luc Crucke, Federal Minister of Mobility.
The Minister therefore reiterates that road users must always give priority to priority vehicles so that emergency services can carry out their work smoothly and without additional risks.
