The Use of Road Safety Data in Highway Authorities

The Road Safety Code of Good Practice (1989) suggested that highway authorities should collect supplementary information in addition to STATS 19 records and that there should be moves towards developing coordinated strategies for road safety planning. It finds that traffic flows, letters from the public, population statistics, police reported damage-only accidents and highway and land development sources are used most often. Shire Counties tend to collect more sources of data than other authorities. All have meetings with the Police, but the Shire Counties and the Non-English Authorities have more meetings with the hospitals compared to the Metropolitan Authorities and the London Boroughs. Only twenty-two Authorities had any evidence of under-reporting, of which only six provided any figures. The location of accidents was the STATS 19 variable considered to have the most number of errors.