Transparency, independence and in depth with regard to safety oriented road accident investigation

In the framework of work package 4 of the SafetyNet project, a European Commission supported research programme, the meaning of the concept of “independence”, its usefulness and applicability to road safety oriented accident investigation processes and their results was reflected upon. According to the project proposal, the work package was to draft good practice recommendations, applicable to all phases of data gathering and input, database management, data use and dissemination, with the aim of ensuring the quality of public European road accident data. It was to develop procedures for evaluating the “independence” of public European road accident databases and to draft recommendations for guaranteeing the “independence” of any future public European road accident database. During the first months of the project, the concept of independence was clearly defined. It applies to the investigation body. It has structural, financial and functional aspects. Some independent accident investigation bodies exist in aviation, maritime and rail transport sectors. For the investigation of road traffic accidents such independent bodies are rare. In the case of major road accidents, their investigation is usually conducted by multimodal accident investigation boards. In the case of more routine road accidents, there is no clear pattern in those countries, whose accident investigation practices were assessed. The status of the investigations and that of the persons conducting the investigations differs from one country to another. When it comes to actual investigation practices, the concept of independence was found to be insufficient or even inappropriate. Progressively it became obvious that the independence of the investigation body and that of the investigation process do not resolve the question of the quality of investigations nor that of the quality of any subsequent data. The quality of the investigation work relies certainly on the impartiality of the investigating body, permitted by its independence, but also on the qualifications and experience of the investigators, as well as the investigation methods used during the actual investigation processes. Data quality itself depends on what questions are to be answered and how adequate the available data is for answering. It is not the knowledge about independence of the investigating body, but the availability of information on all relevant aspects of data acquisition and management processes that allow its quality to be assessed. It is the concept of transparency that corresponds to these aspects of the accident investigation data production processes. Further consideration was given to the use of some key notions, such as “in-depth data” or “in-depth investigation”, which the road safety community generally takes for granted. Their relative fuzziness and their simultaneous use by professionals from different areas of expertise have caused misunderstandings in our discussions with experts who are not primarily oriented towards road safety. This has spurred an effort to clarify the vocabulary in use. This paper examines the work package 4 work with a slight sociological overtone. The work package 4 deliverables can be found at the European Road Safety Observatory web site at http://www.erso.eu/safetynet/content/wp_4_independent_accident_investigation.htm

The New European Road Safety Observatory – SafetyNet

In 2004 there were over 43,000 people who were killed on the roads of the 25 member states of the European Union (EU), additionally around 3.3 million people were injured1. The costs to society exceeded €180 billion which is around twice the annual budget of the European Commission and 2% of EU GDP. In 2001 the European Commission adopted a target of reducing fatalities by 50% within a decade and identified several areas where it could make a direct contribution within the constraints of subsidiarity. The target was reaffirmed in 2003 in the Road Safety Action Programme that provided further detail about actions it planned to introduce. A key element in the Programme concerned the development of a new European Road Safety Observatory to gather data and knowledge to inform future safety policies. The development of the Observatory was to be undertaken by the Sixth Framework funded project “SafetyNet”. This paper describes the structure of the Observatory and the progress in developing new EU-wide accident data information within SafetyNet

Recommendations for establishing Pan European transparent and independent road accident investigations

A set of recommendations for pan-European transparent and independent road accident investigations has been developed by the SafetyNet project. The aim of these recommendations is to pave the way for future EU scale accident investigation activities by setting out the necessary steps for establishing safety oriented road accident investigations in Member States. This can be seen as the start of the process for establishing road accident investigations throughout Europe which operate according to a common methodology. The recommendations propose a European Safety Oriented Road Accident Investigation Programme which sets out the procedures that need to be put in place to investigate a sample of every day road accidents. They address four sets of issues; institutional addressing the characteristics of the programme; operational describing the conditions under which data is collected; data storage and protection; and reports, countermeasures and the dissemination of data

Consultation of a panel of experts on the needs for data and technical tools in road safety policy-making. Deliverable 1.1/4.1 of the EC FP7 project DaCoTA

Consultation of a panel of experts on the needs for data and technical tools in road safety policy-making. Deliverable 1.1/4.1 of the EC FP7 project DaCoT

Proposing a framework for pan European transparent and independent road accident investigation

Unlike the rail, civil aviation and maritime transport modes, there is currently no standard process for investigating road accidents within Europe. There is, therefore, a wide range of road accident investigation procedures and protocols in place across Europe. However, as countries work towards meeting both their own road safety targets and those set by the European Commission, it may be that existing investigation practices are no longer suited to facilitating the decision making processes of road safety policymakers or practitioners. SafetyNet is a European Commission supported project, which is building a European Road Safety Observatory to facilitate the formulation of road safety policy in the European Union. Work package 4 of SafetyNet is developing recommendations for a Transparent and Independent pan-European approach to road accident investigation. These recommendations propose the establishment of an independent body for undertaking transparent and independent accident investigations where necessary, or the implementation of these investigations in existing national safety orientated accident investigation activities, in each of the EU Member States. This body would gather and manage accident investigation data and use this data to further progress road safety within the EU. To define the framework in which this body might operate, ‘Best practice’ from existing investigative organisations across Europe was examined in order to produce a set of draft recommendations which focused on four categories of issues: 1. Institutional, referring to the structure and functioning of the body responsible for road safety investigations; 2. Operational, detailing how the body carries out investigations; 3. Data, addressing issues surrounding the storage, retrieval and analysis of data generated by investigations; and 4. Development of Countermeasures, dealing with how investigation conclusions should be presented, used and disseminated. A consultation exercise was then undertaken in order to gather the expert opinion of European road safety stakeholders and to further develop the recommended framework. This highlighted a number of key questions about the Draft Recommendations including: • Is the proposed level of transparency and independence appropriate for road accident investigations? • Is one type of investigative activity appropriate for all types of accidents ranging from the most severe or ‘major’ accidents to the large number of more minor accidents that occur everyday? The major conclusion was that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not appropriate for the investigation of road accidents and therefore multiple sets of recommendations are required. This paper discusses how the four categories of recommendations combine to form a framework where the data gathered during road accident investigations can be used to develop road accident countermeasures which will assist in casualty reduction throughout Europe

Stakeholder's contribution. Deliverable 1.3 of the EC FP7 Project DaCoTA

The aim of DaCoTA’s Work Package 1 is to shed light on road safety policy-making and management processes in Europe and to explore how these can be better supported by data and knowledge. This was done by assessing demands and views of stakeholders as well as by building a good practice model for road safety management investigation. Future versions of the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO, www.erso.eu) are envisaged to be built on the findings of this project. This report describes the methodology and presents the first aggregated results of an on-line stakeholder consultation carried out in Task 1.3. The survey was successfully carried out among more than 3000 road safety stakeholders in Europe and beyond

Recommendations for establishing Pan European Transparent and Independent Road Accident Investigations

A set of recommendations for pan-European transparent and independent road accident investigations has been developed bythe SafetyNet project. The aim of these recommendations is to pave the way for future EU scale accident investigationactivities by setting out the necessary steps for establishing safety oriented road accident investigations in Member States.This can be seen as the start of the process for establishing road accident investigations throughout Europe which operateaccording to a common methodology.The recommendations propose a European Safety Oriented Road Accident Investigation Programme which sets out theprocedures that need to be put in place to investigate a sample of every day road accidents. They address four sets of issues;institutional addressing the characteristics of the programme; operational describing the conditions under which data iscollected; data storage and protection; and reports, countermeasures and the dissemination of data

Needs for evidence-based road safety decision making in Europe

Closed access. This article was published in the journal, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences [© Elsevier Ltd.] and is available online at www.sciencedirect.comThe objective of this research is the assessment of current needs for evidence-based road safety decision making in Europe, through the consultation of a panel of road safety experts. The members of this Experts Panel have extensive knowledge of road safety management processes and needs in their country, being either directly involved in decision making, or working closely with decision makers. Two consultation methods were implemented: semi-directive interviews and written contributions. The synthesis of the results was carried out by means of a predefined matrix, in which the road safety management tasks were separated into their components, and were then cross-tabulated with distinct categories of needs. The results provide valuable information on the current and future needs for evidence-based road safety management in Europe. A number of key issues were brought forward with wide consensus among Experts, such as the need to make the consideration of scientific evidence in road safety decisions compulsory in all countries. The establishment of appropriate procedures was emphasized, including institutional arrangements for road safety management, with the necessary links and interactive procedures for local needs. The results also include useful recommendations, for the setting of targets, the use of cost-benefit analyses, the analysis of combined effects of measures, the collection of data on measures implementation, the collection of exposure and behavioural data, the estimation of injury under-reporting and the standardization of analysis methods

Investigating road safety management processes in Europe

Closed access. This article was published in the journal, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences [© Elsevier Ltd.] and is available online at www.sciencedirect.comThe work package 1 of the EC FP7 project DaCoTA investigates road safety management processes in Europe. It has drafted a model to investigate the state of the art of road safety policy-making and management at the national level and to define “good practice”. The DaCoTA “good practice” investigation model recommends no “one-best-way” solutions, either for attaining a particular objective or for organizing the road safety sector, as the national context always needs to be taken in account when determining policies with consequences in terms of road safety or when modelling road safety management processes. The model is put to test and will be enhanced through a campaign of face-to-face interviews with road safety experts and policy-makers, carried out in 2011. By December 2012 several case studies illustrating “good practice” will be made available to policy-makers, road safety experts and the public through the ERSO web site