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. 2006 Jul 8;333(7558):73.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.38883.593831.4F. Epub 2006 Jun 23.

Changes in safety on England's roads: analysis of hospital statistics

Mike Gill  1 , Michael J Goldacre, David G R Yeates
Affiliations

Changes in safety on England's roads: analysis of hospital statistics

Mike Gill et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To compare trends in the numbers of people with serious traffic injuries according to police statistics and hospital episode statistics (HES).

Design: Descriptive study based on two independent population based data sources.

Setting: Police statistics and hospital episode statistics in England.

Main outcome measures: Rates of injury and death and their change over time reported in each data source, for 1996 to 2004.

Results: According to police statistics, rates of people killed or seriously injured on the roads fell consistently from 85.9 per 100,000 in 1996 to 59.4 per 100,000 in 2004. Over the same time, however, hospital admission rates for traffic injuries were almost unchanged at 90.0 in 1996 and 91.1 in 2004. Both datasets showed a significant reduction in rates of injury in children aged < or = 15, but the reduction in hospital admission rates was substantially less than the reduction shown in the police statistics. The definition of serious injury in police statistics includes every hospital admission; in each year, none the less, the number of admissions exceeded the number of injuries reported in the police system.

Conclusions: The overall fall seen in police statistics for non-fatal road traffic injuries probably represents a fall in completeness of reporting of these injuries.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Traffic injury rates for England measured from police statistics for people killed or seriously injured and from admissions to hospital (HES), all ages
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Department for Transport. Tomorrow's roads—safer for everyone: the first three year review. London: Department for Transport, 2004.
    1. World Health Organization. European health for all database. www.euro.who.int/hfadb (accessed 16 June 2006).
    1. Department of Transport/National Statistics. Road accident statistics (STATS19 returns). www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Source.asp?vlnk=571 (accessed 16 June 2006).
    1. Simpson HF. Comparison of hospital and police casualty data: a national study. Crowthorne: Transport Research Laboratory, 1996. (TRL report 173).

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