Abstract
Worldwide, road crashes are a major course of death and serious injury. Police reports provide a rich source of data on the proximal causes (e.g., impairment by alcohol, failure to look properly) of road traffic collisions. Yet, road safety research has raised concerns about the quality and reliability of police reported data. In the UK crash report form, contributory factors are categorised (e.g., vehicle defects, driver error or reaction) to aid police officers in identifying appropriate factors. However, discord between the classification of contributory factors in crash reports and police officers’ own categorical perceptions may lead to misunderstanding, and in turn, misreporting of contributory factors. The current investigation recruited 162 police officers to report their perceptions of the relations among contributory factors in the UK crash report form. Hierarchical clustering analysis was used to identify an optimal category structure based on police officers’ perceptions. The clustering analysis identified a classification system with seven or eleven categories of contributory factors, maximising the internal coherence of categories and minimising discord with police officers’ perceptions. The findings also yield new insights into police officers’ perceptions of crash causation and demonstrate how statistical techniques can be used to inform the design of road traffic collision report forms.
Highlights
Road crashes are a major cause of death worldwide, accounting for more than 1.2 million deaths each year and many more non-fatal injuries (World Health Organization, 2015)
Police reports provide an important source of data on the factors that contribute to road traffic collisions (e.g.,United Kingdom (UK) Department for Transport (DfT, 2014)
Road safety research has raised concerns about the quality and reliability of police reported data (Couto et al, 2016; Watson et al, 2015), especially regarding the reporting of contributory factors to crashes (Imprialou and Quddus, 2019; Montella, 2011; Rolison et al, 2018), indicating that road traffic collision reports may provide a misleading picture about crash causation
Summary
Road crashes are a major cause of death worldwide, accounting for more than 1.2 million deaths each year and many more non-fatal injuries (World Health Organization, 2015). Driver-related factors, namely driver actions or behaviour, contribute to most road traffic collisions and are the dominant cause of the majority of crashes (Evans, 1996). Police reports provide an important source of data on the factors that contribute to road traffic collisions (e.g.,UK Department for Transport (DfT, 2014). Road safety research has raised concerns about the quality and reliability of police reported data (Couto et al, 2016; Watson et al, 2015), especially regarding the reporting of contributory factors to crashes (Imprialou and Quddus, 2019; Montella, 2011; Rolison et al, 2018), indicating that road traffic collision reports may provide a misleading picture about crash causation. The current research investigated police officers’ perceptions of existing methods for reporting contributory factors with a view to improving the quality and reliability of police reported data
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
