the special vehicles are M1, M2 or M3 vehicles, where M1 means
vehicles comprising no more than eight seats in addition to the
driver’s seat, while M2 (maximum mass < 5000 kg) and M3 (maximummass
> 5000 kg) refer to vehicles comprising more than eight
seats in addition to the driver’s seat.
One research area within the field of STS, recently given much
attention, is safety. Many travelers are elderly and/or frail, traveling
seated in wheelchairs and not in regular vehicle seats, and a
majority of the travelers have few or no alternate modes of transport
[2]. It has also been shown that STS travelers run the risk of
being injured without being involved in a vehicle crash [4–7].However,
significant methodological challenges are connected to this
type of investigation, since the official Swedish road traffic statistics
only include vehicle-related injury events from police reported
collisions [8]. Hence, other sources, such as hospital-based data,
should be used in order to provide a broad and accurate picture of
STS safety.
Previous research has underscored the significant difference
in the coverage between hospital injury data and police injury
data. Albertsson [9] concluded that a considerable underreporting
existed (police injury data), even more often in the case of minor
injuries. This finding was further supported by the fact that only
35% of all injuries reported in Swedish hospital data could be found