TY - JOUR PY - 2013// TI - Crash databases in Australasia, the European Union, and the United States JO - Transportation research record A1 - Montella, Alfonso A1 - Andreassen, David A1 - Tarko, Andrew A1 - Turner, Shane A1 - Mauriello, Filomena A1 - Imbriani, Lella A1 - Romero, Mario SP - 128 EP - 136 VL - 2386 IS - N2 - Because the quality of decision making in road safety is dependent on the quality of the data on which decisions are based, efforts to improve the quality, timeliness, and accuracy of crash databases are crucial. A critical review of Australasian, European Union, and U.S. crash databases was performed, and future directions were identified. Major issues included procedures for access to crash data, crash report forms, severity of crashes reported in the databases, crash locations, crash classification, and crash severity. Access to crash databases could be provided to approved road safety professionals through a web-based portal, which could also provide detailed police crash reports. The use of electronic crash report forms was strongly recommended because it might solve most of the problems associated with paper forms. The severity of crashes reported in the databases varied across countries, and not all countries reported property-damage-only crashes. However, for both prevention and consistency between countries, collecting property-damage-only crash reports and using them to develop safety strategies is recommended. Combined use of Global Positioning System devices and geographic information systems improves the reporting of crash locations and overcomes traditional problems such as inaccuracies and collection mistakes. To develop effective countermeasures, it is recommended that crashes be classified by the maneuvers and sequence of events for each traffic unit. The adoption of the same system for crash severity classification in different countries would allow comparisons in safety performance between countries and jurisdictions.

LA - en SN - 0361-1981 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3141/2386-15 ID - ref1 ER -