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551 Towards a national serious road injury register in Australia
  1. Angela Watson,
  2. Angela Watson,
  3. Joanne Flavel
  1. Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

Abstract

Background Data currently available on non-fatal road injuries are thought to be insufficiently complete and reliable. Linkage of hospital and crash data overcomes the limitations associated with relying on crash or hospital data alone and has been recognised by road safety agencies as integral to future reporting.

Aims This Austroads funded project aims to extend on a Stage 1 proof of concept project,1 to provide national and subnational estimates of non-fatal road injuries over 10-years for National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) reporting.

Methods Crash and admitted patients’ data were provided for five out of six Australian states and both Australian territories, as well as national deaths data, for the period 2008–2017. Data were person-linked by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). A case estimation process, based on the one developed in Stage 1, was applied to produce case numbers for reporting and statistical analysis.

Results There were approximately 1,470,000 hospital, 1,750,000 crash, and 220,000 death records across the seven jurisdictions. Findings will be presented for counts of serious road crash injuries in Australia over 10-years and include results relating to key characteristics such as road user type, age, and sex.

Conclusion This project will include estimates of serious road injuries in Australia. This will enable reporting of the NRSS indicators for serious road injury and provide a more complete understanding of serious road injury which is integral for planning and evaluation of road safety programs. It provides the basis for an envisaged National Road Serious Injury Register.

Reference

  1. Harrison, et al. (2019) A National Approach to Measuring Non-Fatal Crash Outcomes. Austroads publication no. AP-R599–19.

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