This research presents the official use of accident data in national and international level, identifies the possibilities for pan-European comparison and aims to open the discussion for a future European approach on road accident analysis.  Official national road accident statistics publications have been analysed and compared revealing that EU-level road accident analysis is limited by the data collected and the restrictions of the collection system used in each EU state. The twelve national road accidents data collection – elaboration processes present significant differences among them and therefore convergence perspectives face important difficulties.  This fact is also reflected in the statistics publications of international organisations in which reliable comparisons can be carried out only for limited accident data categories and only by the use of special techniques (correction coefficients, indices, etc.).  Standardisation of road accident data to be collected in EU level, is therefore essential for reliable pan-European comparison and monitoring of safety level in the European roads.