Publication Details

Completing the picture of traffic injuries: Understanding data needs and opportunities for road safety

Type: article

Author(s): Cherry, Christopher R.; Dumbaugh, Eric; Ragland, David R.; Sandt, Laura S.; Merlin, Louis A.; Hezaveh, Amin Mohamadi; Noltenius, Melany; Khattak, Asad J.

Pages: 137

Url: https://dataverse.unc.edu/citation?persistentId=doi:10.15139/S3/DLAC9X

Publication Date: Nov-2018

Journal: UNC Dataverse

Doi: 10.15139/s3/dlac9x

Abstract: Although traditional police recorded crash data has improved over time, providing additional data and analytics will demonstrate a more “complete picture” of crashes and injuries. In this study, we examined this complete picture of traffic crashes and determined which data elements of conventional crash data can be used to perform linkage between multiple data sources and eventually create a data linkage map of a more “complete picture” of traffic crashes. This study stands as a quick reference guide for practitioners and researchers to understand existing databases and how datasets relate to each other. The main body of the report is meant to frame the issue of data that can be relevant to understanding crashes and show how they interface with conventional crash datasets. Furthermore, we provided a comprehensive analysis of pre-crash, crash, environment, and post-crash datasets which includes linkages between multiple datasets and their implications for road safety analysis. This study concludes with five case studies. These case studies focus on 1) underreporting of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries in police crash data, 2) a review of pre-hospital response time and traumatic injury, 3) exploring the relationship between residential neighborhood accessibility and safety, 4) development of a Home Based Approach as a complementary method for measuring road safety at residential address of the road users, and 5) examining factors influencing seat belt use rates at the neighborhood level. This series of studies assists policy makers and contribute to visualization of linked data that helps tell compelling safety stories that guide safety improvements.