Bold actions needed to improve civil registration data for road traffic deaths

Abstract

Persisting problems of underreporting and poor quality of road traffic mortality data exist. Bold and sustained actions need to be undertaken by countries to improve civil registration data collection and reporting. Countries need to implement three specific actions to improve civil registration and vital statistics data systems and/or road traffic injury data collection:Ensure that civil registration and vital statistics systems produce high-quality cause of death data by working with the health sector to improve medical certification of cause of death and statistical coding in line with the International Classification of Diseases.Adopt a consistent definition of a road traffic death for use in police databases, particularly in countries with incomplete civil registration and vital statistics data, where police data are the most reliable source of informationLink data sources – including civil registration records, police data, health records, insurance data – to improve official road traffic fatality estimates while ensuring the privacy of individual identification.