Publication

The large number of road accidents and casualties requires the development of a European approach or collecting data that will allow a harmonized and detailed investigation of accidents, while assuring the quality of the collected information. Within the project DaCoTA (Work Package 2), existing methodologies were examined in order for elements of them to form the content of a broader framework which was then developed and implemented in a pilot study involving 19 countries. The new database was based on existing systems, after an assessment of protocol adequacy. The database includes eight sections of data, such as “Road”, “Vehicle” and “Medical Information - Injury Mechanism”. The web-based application which includes the storage of the collected data allows teams cross Europe to upload and download data in a secure way. An on-line manual has been further developed and has been used for the first time on a European wide basis. The collection methodology and the database were tested by teams from 19 EU Member States or neighboring countries before the final version being made available for future use.