Towards an analytical information system of traffic accidents in the function of traffic safety monitoring

Abstract

Quality monitoring, analysis and evaluation of traffic safety situation is the first and most important strategic step in establishing a traffic safety protection system. With the goal of establishing the protection system and traffic safety management system, it is necessary to use quality data from traffic accident databases. Apart from quality, with respect to different quality criteria, it is also necessary for the database to be both available and up-to-date. Database availability and up-to-datedness is extremely important for scientific and professional research, because that research helps define certain dependencies that can affect the choice of traffic safety improvement measures. The quality of the data which are in the database also has to be very high. This can be achieved by establishing an information system and information flow by relevant subjects that possess information on traffic accidents towards the central database. For that purpose, the data coming from the police, insurance companies, health authorities and other relevant authorities need to be processed and adapted to the form of the data from the central database. This method produces comprehensive and quality data on traffic accidents, compared to when the database is ‘filled’ by only one source, for example the police. The existing traffic accident database in Serbia is owned by the Ministry of Interior, and that database is not suitable for research and analysis, it is not public and the procedure for obtaining data is long and uncertain. The new Road Traffic Safety Law in Serbia gives different users the opportunity to access traffic safety data, but it is somewhat restricted or limited. With that in mind, there was a need to define and establish a new traffic accident database. This paper presents the possibilities of traffic safety analysis based on the integrated traffic accident database model, which was primarily compiled for the needs of the City of Belgrade within the BERTAAD Project(Belgrade Road and Traffic Accident and Analitical Database). Possibilities of the database are reflected in different levels of access to the database, depending on the user, different levels of data detail that can be accessed; they are also easier to work with because the database is user-oriented. Key words: traffic safety, analysis, estimate, database model, access.