Traffic injury data collection in Iran, challenges and solutions

Abstract

Background and Objective: Accurate and reliable information is critical to effective decision- making to preventing road traffic injuries (RTIs). This study investigated the status of Road Traffic Data Collection System (RTDCS) and provided some practical solutions.Materials and Methods: All RTIs in 2012 were included in the study. The RTIs data are collected by police using COM 114 tool. The PATAK software was designed and used to link relevant records of specified accident. Using descriptive analysis and also Microsoft Office Excel and PATAK software’s functions the errors of RTDCS were detected.Results: Atotal of 1,392,815 records of road traffic accidents were examined. Approximately 7% of RTIs were recordedrepetitively. There were more than 2% of all injuries with no information about general condition of accident and 10.2% with no divers’information. Missing data was almost high in all variables and in some cases were 50%. Mismatching and inconsistent in the part of data and overlapping in some of variables in data collection tool were of other problems. More than 99 percent of records identified and merged correctly using the PATAK software.Conclusion: The study revealed that RTDCS faces some problems and shortcomings. Using designed PATAK software, probability of all data utilization in road traffic data collection system is provided. To improve quality of RTIs data, reloading and modification of RTDCS is necessary.