Abstract
BackgrondRoad traffic crashes (RTCs) are a leading cause of death. In low and middle income countries (LMIC) data to conduct hotspot analyses and safety audits are usually incomplete, poor quality, and not computerized. Police data are often limited, but there are no alternative gold standards. This project evaluates high road utilizer surveys as an alternative to police data to identify RTC hotspots.MethodsRetrospective police RTC data was compared to prospective data from high road utilizer surveys regarding dangerous road locations. Spatial analysis using geographic information systems was used to map dangerous locations and identify RTC hotspots. We assessed agreement (Cohen’s Kappa), sensitivity/specificity, and cost differences.ResultsIn Rwanda police data identified 1866 RTC locations from 2589 records while surveys identified 1264 locations from 602 surveys. In Sri Lanka, police data identified 721 RTC locations from 752 records while survey data found 3000 locations from 300 surveys. There was high agreement (97 %, 83 %) and kappa (0.60, 0.60) for Rwanda and Sri Lanka respectively. Sensitivity and specificity are 92 % and 95 % for Rwanda and 74 % and 93 % for Sri Lanka. The cost per crash location identified was $2.88 for police and $2.75 for survey data in Rwanda and $2.75 for police and $1.21 for survey data in Sri Lanka.ConclusionSurveys to locate RTC hotspots have high sensitivity and specificity compared to police data. Therefore, surveys can be a viable, inexpensive, and rapid alternative to the use of police data in LMIC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2609-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Over 1.24 million people die annually on the world’s roads, with another 20 to 50 million sustaining non fatal injuries due to road traffic crashes (RTC), and these numbers are increasing rapidly [1]
Retrospective police RTC data was compared to prospective data from high road utilizer surveys regarding dangerous road locations
Surveys to locate RTC hotspots have high sensitivity and specificity compared to police data
Summary
Over 1.24 million people die annually on the world’s roads, with another 20 to 50 million sustaining non fatal injuries due to road traffic crashes (RTC), and these numbers are increasing rapidly [1]. The WHO suggests that best practice road safety audits should include an assessment of safety for all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists [1] To conduct these road safety audits complete epidemiological data, including crash locations, is required. While most countries utilize police, prehospital, or hospital based data to identify road traffic injury hotspots LMIC data sources may have incomplete and poor quality data. In particular they may lack latitudinal or longitudinal data or not have addresses amenable to subsequent determination of geolocation coordinates [3,4,5,6].
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