Under-Reporting of Road Traffic Injuries to the Police: Results from Two Data Sources in Urban India

Since policy makers use data from police reports to identify and prioritize issues related to road safety, it is important that this data be complete and of high quality. This paper reports the magnitude and pattern of under-reporting of road traffic injury (RTI) to the police from population-based and hospital-based data collected from Hyderabad, India. In a cross-sectional population-based survey, 10,459 participants aged 5-49 years, selected using three-stage systematic cluster sampling, recalled the reporting of non-fatal RTIs to the police in the preceding 12 months and fatal RTIs in the preceding 3 years. In addition, 781 consecutive RTI cases presenting to the emergency department of five hospitals provided information on RTI reporting to the police. Results showed that in the population-based study, 2.3% of those who had non-fatal RTIs and sought outpatient services and 17.2% of those who required inpatient services reported the RTI to the police. Of the non-fatal consecutive RTI cases presenting to emergency departments, 24.6% reported the RTI to the police. In the population-based study, 77.8% of the fatal RTIs were reported to the police, and of the consecutive fatal RTI cases presenting to emergency departments, 98.1% were reported to the police. The major reasons cited for not reporting RTIs to the police were "not necessary to report" and "hit and run case." These data highlight the practical issues that need to be addressed to improve reporting RTIs to the police by both hospitals and the public.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.2008.019638
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13538047
• Authors:
  • Dandona, R
  • Kumar, G A
  • Ameer, M A
  • Reddy, G B
  • Dandona, L
• Publication Date: 2008-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 360-365
• Serial:
  • Injury Prevention
  • Volume: 14
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
  • ISSN: 1353-8047
  • EISSN: 1475-5785
  • Serial URL: http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash injuries; Crash reports; Data quality; Developing countries; Hospitals; Police reports; Surveys; Traffic crash victims
• Geographic Terms: Hyderabad (India)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01120164
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 30 2009 7:37AM