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Catalyzing Advancements in Traffic Safety via Data Linkage: Case Example of the New Jersey Traffic Safety Outcomes Program Database

Historically, analyses of existing crash databases have increased our collective understanding of the causes of young driver crashes and allowed us to chart progress in reducing the burden of these crashes. However, for the most part, crash report data is limited to events that occurred just prior to the crash, the crash event itself, and data on the conditions of people involved in the moments immediately after the crash. This means that the relevant time period for crash data is limited to just a few minutes. In order to gain a more comprehensive picture of the causes and implications of motor vehicle crashes—both in general and specifically among teen drivers—we need to be able to better place crash events both in the context of the drivers’ histories and in their short- and long-term outcomes following a crash. This can be accomplished by linking crash data to other relevant sources of existing data. To describe the ongoing process of development of the New Jersey Traffic Safety Outcomes Program (NJ-TSO), a unique comprehensive database that will contain individual-level data from various data sources and be used to answer a host of important research questions in traffic safety. Creation of the NJ-TSO database requires successful collaboration with several governmental agencies in NJ, including: the Department of Transportation; Motor Vehicle Commission; Office of Information Technology; and Department of Health. In all, 8 sources of data will be linked (see Figure 1): (1) driver licensing data; (2) data on all traffic-related citations; (3) police-reported crash data; (4) geographic-level indicators from the Census; (5) childhood medical records for NJ residents who were patients of the CHOP healthcare network and born 1987-1997; (6) statewide birth certificate data; (7) statewide death certificate data; and (8) statewide hospital discharge data. Individual databases were/will be linked using a combination of hierarchical deterministic and probabilistic linkages using SAS and LinkSolv. The authors will: (1) provide a table that depicts available identifiers from each data source; (2) include a detailed description of how databases were linked and how validity of the linkage process was assessed; (3) provide a detailed description of available data in the NJ-TSO; and (4) provide examples of research questions that can be uniquely answered via linked databases such as the NJ-TSO. Though not typically created for research purposes, administrative databases can provide a wealth of data that can be useful for and important to traffic safety research. The value of each of these data sources to traffic safety increases exponentially when linked, thus catalyzing further advancements in knowledge.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB30 Standing Committee on Operator Education and Regulation.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Curry, Allison E
    • Pfeiffer, Melissa R
    • Metzger, Kristina B
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2017

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures;
  • Pagination: 2p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01626295
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 17-05340
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Feb 22 2017 9:55AM