Road Accidents in EU, USA and India: A critical analysis of Data Collection Framework

Abstract

Transportation is lifeline of any country across globe for its well-known reason. Being the lifeline, it has several challenges, especially when the cases of road transportation are highlighted and safety factors are concerned. Though safety aspect has an equal importance in all modes of transportation, however in road transport, it has a higher priority due to higher density of population dependency. The safety of road transportation has one of the key concerns, i.e., road accidents or crashes and all the countries are facing challenges due to the fatalities and injuries associated apart from the loss of other resources. Road safety is backbone of a country and policy planning and precautionary measures for an efficient safety system on road are dependent on accident variables. Countries are working in minimizing the incidents, and most commonly approach is to collect the data from crashes and accordingly understand the pattern. The objective of the paper is to aggregate, explore, and outline the key parameters that recorded from accident site and act as key inputs in planning a future strategy in prevention and monitoring for such accidents. The importance of accident data variables and procedures for collection of accident evolved over the time globally and replaced by new systems over the period of time for recording accident data for better management and analysis of accidents. The examination of the systems, in the countries referred, reveals the different evolution of systems along with various accident parameters having similarities and dissimilarities in road accident parameters recorded and maintained. This paper presents various accident data recording systems and key variable recordings in the USA, European Union, and India. This paper explains about the evolutions of different systems over the time in EU, viz. from CARE to CADAs and in the USA with GES, CISS, CDS, CRSS, and FARS. These systems are explained with their data variables, and retrospective observations are discussed. The systems in India are also presented, and various limitations were discussed. The importance of information collected from accident sites has a special significance in understanding the patterns, causes, and planning for a better safer infrastructure and system.