Reliability of Self-Reported Road Crash and Violation Data of Professional Drivers: The Case of Qatar

Abstract

Having accurate road traffic crashes (RTCs) and violations data is essential for establishing more realistic crash and casualty reduction programs. Although crash data commonly suffer from issues of accuracy and comprehensiveness, these factors are often disregarded in crash analyses. This research aims to evaluate the trustworthiness of self-reported RTCs and violations data in relation to actual record data among professional taxi and bus drivers in the state of Qatar. The analysis will account for divergences across socio-demographic features and driver types. A statistical analysis i.e. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used on the collected data (one year self-reported and two years actual data) of 566 participants, comprising 361 taxi drivers and 206 bus drivers who were employed by Karwa driving school. The results revealed significant differences between self-reported RTCs and traffic violation data and actual records. The accuracy of self-reporting also varies depending on the type of driver and across various socio-demographic categories. The variations observed in the data have significant inferences for the overall reliability of the data and their influence on crash analysis.