AN ASSESSMENT OF THE UNDER REPORTING OF ROAD ACCIDENT CASUALTIES IN RELATION TO INJURY SEVERITY ---PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1988 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE BIOMECHANICS OF IMPACTS, HELD IN BERGISCH-GLADBACH (FRG), 14-16 SEPTEMBER 1988.

Previous studies have suggested that many road accidents involving casualties are not reported to the police and are thereby seriously under-represented in the national road accident statistics. The aim of this work was to quantify the magnitude of this underreporting, for a sample of road users, in relation to the severity of injuries sustained. A hospital based study collected information on road accident casualties, presenting to a hospital for the whole of the county of oxfordshire, England for 1983 and 1984. Particular attention was given to establishing injury patterns, the level of police reporting, demographic characteristics of casualties and accident circumstances. The rate of reporting was determined for each road user type in relation to the involvement of another vehicle and the severity of injury sustained, as assessed by the abbreviated injury scale (AIS). A comparison was then made with casualty severity as recorded by the police, for reported accidents. The differences between these assessments is discussed and the implications of any underreporting in relation to total road accident costs is explored.(a) for the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 817576.

• Corporate Authors:

  IRCOBI (International Research Council on the Biokinetics of Impacts)

  109 Avenue Salvador Allende
  Bron CEDEX,   France  F-69675
• Authors:
  • TUNBRIDGE, R J
  • EVEREST, J T
• Publication Date: 1988

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 101-9
• Serial:
  • Publication of: IRCOBI-Secretariat
  • Publisher: IRCOBI (International Research Council on the Biokinetics of Impacts)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Biophysics; Classification; Conferences; Costs; Crashes; Cyclists; Data collection; Errors; Hospitals; Injuries; Injury severity; Methodology; Pedestrians; Police; Travelers; Vehicle occupants
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Finance; Passenger Transportation; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00486897
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 30 1989 12:00AM