Modeling road accident injury under-reporting in Europe

Abstract

Purpose In this research, a disaggregate analysis of road accident injury under-reporting in selected European countries is presented. Method The level of injury under-reporting is expressed by under-reporting coefficients, estimated as the actual estimated number of road accident injuries of a given severity to the number of related injuries recorded by the Police. These coefficients were calculated within national/regional studies in the examined countries, through a specially developed uniform methodology of linking and matching Police road accident records and hospital records. Log-rate models are developed in order to estimate the combined effects of country (CZ, FR, GR, HU, NL, ES and the UK), road user type (car occupant, motorcyclist, pedal cyclist, pedestrian), Police severity score (serious or slight injury) and MAIS score (the maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale score) on under-reporting. Results The results suggest that the examined characteristics have important combined effect on under-reporting (i.e. thirdorder interaction). The results of the analysis of lower-order interactions reveal specific particularities of each country/ region, indicating areas on which authorities should focus their efforts. Conclusions For example, it was found that slight injuries are more likely to be under-reported than serious injuries in the Czech Republic, France, and Greece, while the opposite is the case for the Netherlands and the UK. Moreover, although the Netherlands do not present high under-reporting rates overall, a particular issue is identified in this country for pedal cyclists' slight injuries. Finally, a considerable part of total underreporting in most countries can be attributed to injury severity mis-reporting.

Risk Indicators and Road Accident Analysis for the Period 2012–2016

“…For the clarity and accuracy of the identification process, a number of variables were used to analyse and evaluate the collected data. The variables were established according to the priorities of the European strategy [18] and the literature [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

“…These accidents are based on a number of causes that depend on a number of variables, such as: no priority to pedestrians, no priority to vehicles, the unlawful crossing of pedestrians, bicycle rider's deviations, speed not adapted to road conditions, deviations of the drivers of animal traction vehicles, and so on. It can be argued that road and traffic accidents are defined by a set of variables, some known and others unknown, which are more subtle [1][2][3]. Accident reduction and road safety are major concerns for public health.…”

From the analysis of European accident data to safety assessment for planning: the role of good vehicles in urban area

“…As discussed in the following, although the level of detail of the main European safety statistics (e.g. CARE database) is insufficient to provide a fully accurate view (Tavasszy and de Jong [17]; Yannis et al [18]), some analyses can be performed and subsequent indications can be drawn.…”

Evaluating the police service quality for handling traffic crash reporting

“…Due to the reliance on traffic crash data from police reports for identifying human, vehicular and infrastructure factors underlying crash frequency and severity, concerns regarding their trustworthiness have been raised and questions about the under-reporting phenomenon have been asked (e.g., Elvik and Mysen, 1999;Farmer, 2003;Yannis et al, 2014). Studies comparing police and hospital crash databases have found high under-reporting rates in police data, with considerable selection bias related to road user type and crash severity (e.g., Elvik and Mysen, 1999;Yannis et al, 2014;Watson et al, 2015;Janstrup et al, 2016).…”