ANALYSIS OF RELIABILITY OF ACCIDENT INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM OFF-THE-SCENE SOURCES

A STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO REDUCE THE TIME SPENT BY LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL IN ON-SCENE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION ACTIVITIES WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE NEEDS OF ACCIDENT DATA USERS. ONE APPROACH WAS TO COLLECT FEWER INFORMATION (OR DATA) ITEMS AT THE SCENE AND TO USE ALL OR PART OF THIS REDUCED SET OF DATA TO RETRIEVE OR DERIVE OTHER NEEDED DATA ITEMS FROM OFF-THE-SCENE SOURCES. AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF EVALUATING THIS APPROACH CONCERNS THE RELIABILITY OF SUCH OFF-SCENE SOURCES TO REPLACE ON-SCENE DATA COLLECTION. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT WAS TO TEST THE RELIABILITY OF RETRIEVING (OR DERIVING) SPECIFIC DATA ITEMS FROM EXISTING OFF-THE-SCENE SOURCES THROUGH THE USE OF CORE DATA ITEMS RECORDED ON-SCENE. A RELATED OBJECTIVE WAS TO ASSESS THE STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ANY DIFFERENCE WHICH MIGHT OCCUR BETWEEN OFF-THE-SCENE AND ON-SCENE INFORMATION. THE RESULTS SHOW THAT RELIABLE OFF-SCENE SOURCES EXIST FOR A NUMBER OF ACCIDENT DATA ITEMS. THIS RELIABILITY STUDY WAS A NECESSARY STEP TOWARD THE IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPROVED ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION PROCEDURES. AREAS OF FUTURE RESEARCH ARISING FROM THIS STUDY INCLUDE EXTENSIONS OF RELIABILITY ANALYSIS TO OTHER OFF-SCENE SOURCES AND DATA ITEMS, AND A COST ANALYSIS OF THE ON-SCENE INVESTIGATION PROCESS. THE RESULTS OF SUCH STUDIES WOULD PROVIDE ESSENTIAL INPUTS TO A COST-EFFECTIVENESS COMPARISON OF THE PRESENT AND PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF ACCIDENT DATA COLLECTION. /AUTHOR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Rpt No 68-63, 60 PP, 3 TAB, 2 FIG, 25 REF
• Corporate Authors:

  Itte, Calif Univ, Los Angeles

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Gerrard, J P
  • MOSHER, W W
• Publication Date: 1968-12

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash investigation; Crash reports; Data analysis; Data collection; Functions (Mathematics); Information management; Information, data, and knowledge; Mathematical analysis; Reliability
• Old TRIS Terms: Data recording; Derivation
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00220598
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Nat Safety Council Safety Res Info Serv
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 4 1970 12:00AM