Development of a Relational Accident Database Management System for Mexican Federal Roads

Abstract

Two years ago, the Mexican Transportation Institute began to develop a computer-based management system of the information collected by various organizations about accidents occurring on the Federal Road Network. This system combines the information gathered by these organizations with the purpose of completing and validating the data so that tools can be developed for processing and analyzing the validated data and the processed data and developed tools can be made available to users. It was decided to support the development of such efforts on computer databases already being generated, on database processing and management software, on geographic information systems, and on remote data-exchange systems (e.g., the Internet). The progress made so far in the development of the computer system is reviewed. The system has been named the “Relational Accident Database Management System for Mexican Federal Roads” (SAIACF, in Spanish). The information sources beneficial to this project are identified and analyzed. The ideal scheme conceived for the integration of the various information sources is presented, and the SAIACF system is outlined. Some of the results obtained after its application to the information corresponding to 1997 are shown. Also, the element that was generated to make the information and the tools available to users is described, and conclusions are drawn.