Annual reports and data on road accidents in 2008

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND TECHNICAL SERVICES BY THE DEPUTY OF ST. MARY

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 23rd FEBRUARY 2010

Question

"Further to the response to my written question of 1st December 2009 –

1. would the Minister explain the increase inaccident figures in the 2008 column of the table at the foot of the first page oftheanswer?
2. what analysis,if any, has beencarriedoutontypesandcausesof road accidents over the last 5 years and how  is this analysis carried out?
3. do annual reports exist for typesandcauses of road accidents, (or similar non-annualreports) and if so, wherecan these reports be accessed?
4. can similar reports befoundgoing back 10,20 and 30 yearsago for comparison purposes and, if so, where?
5. has anyresearch been undertaken in  Jersey on the effect of such factors as drink-driving laws and street lighting on road accident statistics and, ifso,wherecan these reports beaccessed?"

Answer

In reply to Deputy Wimberley's question, road traffic collision data is collected and collated by the (Home Affairs Department) Police. The data belongs to the Police. TTS do not hold the gross data but are provided with data which has had certain sensitive fields removed.

1. T he data provided in the answer tabled on 1st December 2009 was generated by the Home Affairs Department. The data included a note at the foot of the page which is reproduced below.

" I M P ORTANT NOTE : Prior to March 2008, road traffic collision statistics were subject of a separate paper form submitted by the investigating officer.  In March 2008, road traffic collision data began to be gathered through the VIEWPOINT recording system, which facilitated closer monitoring of the accuracy of records and also eliminated the possibility of paper forms being lost. It is likely that some of the increase shown in 2008 is due to the introduction of more accurate recording processes in States of Jersey Police"

W  h ile the contents of this note may explain the increase, there is another possible explanation. Road traffic

collisions are defined in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Road Safety Engineering Manual as "a rare, random, multifactor event always preceded by a situation in which one or more persons have failed to cope with their environment". This statement alludes to a known degree of randomness in collision data due the large number of different parameters involved in road traffic collisions; road condition, time of day, lighting, season, driver perception etc. This randomness can produce clusters of accident data both geographically and in time that are not statistically significant in themselves and are later shown to be a statistical blip' rather than a sustained trend.

A t p resent there is not sufficient data to determine whether this is a statistical blip', a trend, or a change

due to the new method of data collection.

2. O  ver the last five years, as the information ismade available, TTS has plotted the road traffic collision data made available to the Departmentby the Home Affairs DepartmentontocomputerisedGISmap layers. The accidents are plotted insuch a way that filters in the softwareallow the Department to view collision

events by any of the categories in the database. The principle categories are by slight, serious, fatal, pedestrian,

but plotting by, for example cycle, moped, and motorcycle is also possible. On occasion TTS will ask the Police for the original RTC report to better inform the analysis of a particular issue. TTS analyse RTC data when studying various traffic management proposals. The Home Affairs Department carry out their own analysis of the data in a way suited to their operations.

3. T h e Home Affairs Department publishes, as part of the Chief Officer of Police Annual Report, a summary of road traffic collision data. Transport and Technical Services (TTS) publish RTC figures in the Department's section of the Annual Performance Reportforthe States of Jersey.
4. T h e data belongs to the Home Affairs Department and this question would be better directed to theHome Affairs Department.It is the industry norm to consider the previous threeyearsRTC data when evaluating traffic or safety improvement schemes. However, TTS tends to use data going back to 2000, as the information is readily accessible in an excel spreadsheet database. Paper records are held in the TTS archives dating back to 1989.
5. D rink driving falls outsideofTTS's core expertiseofHighways and Traffic Engineering andis a regulatory matter for the Police. TTS has no record of any studies carried out in Jersey into anylinksbetween Street lighting andaccident rates, though indicative data would be available forUK road network through the research of the TransportResearchLaboratory.