The Development of a Comprehensive Database for Accident Analysis.

The Road Safety Code of Good Practice states that highway authorities should consider obtaining supplementary road safety data, to give a better assessment of the level of under-reporting and to improve the safety studies they undertake. This paper examines the extra sources of data that are available and used by highway authorities. It shows an improved system of linking police and hospital injury data and assesses the potential for the use of other such data. A questionnaire survey of all highway authorities in Britain was undertaken which showed that data sources such as traffic flows were used regularly, whereas others such as hospital data were rarely used. It was also found that when attempts were made to combine data much of the work was done manually. One of the most useful supplementary sources of information on accidents is hospital casualty data. A method of linking this with police reported casualty data by using, among other things, the name and address of the casualty has been shown to produce a considerably improved match than that in studies previously undertaken. This has thus been used to evaluate under-reporting and the nature of specific injuries to those involved in accidents. This study looks at the possibilities of including other data sources which could be used to assist authorities in validating accident forms and aiding in the selection of accident sites suitable for remedial treatment