❓ A Western Australian parliamentary question on notice seeks detailed information on the causes of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes, how this data is used by the Office of Road Safety, and why this information isn't readily available to the public in a clear, proportional format. The response provides some data and refers to existing publications.
AnsweredQoN 2681Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(a) does the Western Australian Police Service provide details of the causes of all fatal and serious injury traffic crashes to the Office of Road Safety;
(b) will the Minister list all the possible causes of traffic crashes;
(c) what does the Office of Road Safety do with this information about the cause of each fatal or serious injury traffic crash;
(d) why is this information not included in the annual publication titled “Reported Road Crashes in WA” in a way so that readers can determine the proportion of fatal and serious traffic crashes attributable to each cause;
(e) does the Office of Road Safety collate or record the number of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes attributable to each cause, to show the proportion of all such accidents that resulted from each cause, and
(i) if so, what is the latest year for which this information is available; and
(ii) will the Minister provide a copy of that information; and
(f) according to the latest annual data available to the Office of Road Safety, what proportion of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes were caused by speeding (not in which speeding was a “factor”)?
(b) will the Minister list all the possible causes of traffic crashes;
(c) what does the Office of Road Safety do with this information about the cause of each fatal or serious injury traffic crash;
(d) why is this information not included in the annual publication titled “Reported Road Crashes in WA” in a way so that readers can determine the proportion of fatal and serious traffic crashes attributable to each cause;
(e) does the Office of Road Safety collate or record the number of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes attributable to each cause, to show the proportion of all such accidents that resulted from each cause, and
(i) if so, what is the latest year for which this information is available; and
(ii) will the Minister provide a copy of that information; and
(f) according to the latest annual data available to the Office of Road Safety, what proportion of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes were caused by speeding (not in which speeding was a “factor”)?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
16 October 2007
Responded by
Minister for Community Safety
Response time
28 days
(a) Yes. The Western Australia Police provide two sources of crash data to the Office of Road Safety (ORS) - preliminary data provided on the day of the crash (or shortly after) for media purposes, followed by complete, verified data that has been entered into the Integrated Road Information System at Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA). This latter set of data is provided to the ORS by MRWA with the consent of the WA Police.
(b) The annual road crash publication "Reported Road Crashes in WA" provides numbers and proportions of crashes and injuries for a vast majority of causes/factors identified in the international literature as contributing to road crashes. The terms "factor" and "contributing cause" can be and are commonly used synonymously in road safety. For a list of causes recorded by Police, please refer to question on notice LA2683.
(c) The ORS utilises all available information about crash causes to plan and coordinate evidence-based road safety initiatives, policies, strategies and responses.
(d) The annual road crash publication "Reported Road Crashes in WA" provides numbers and proportions of crashes and injuries for a vast majority of component causes identified in the international literature as contributing to road crashes. The 2004 and 2005 crash books have been reviewed in light of international publications and improvements made relative to previous WA publications. In the 2005 crash book no one table lists all causes in one place to allow readers to prioritise all causes. (The 2005 book is now available at
http://www.officeofroadsafety.wa.gov.au/documents/Annualcrashbook_2005.pdf
).
(e) See (d) above.
(f) While impact speeds (or exact pre-crash vehicle speeds) are not currently collected by police for all serious crashes, police do make an assessment of whether or not speeding was a causal factor in a crash. Based on preliminary data for 2006, speeding was a "cause" in 35% of fatal crashes and 18% of serious crashes attended by police on WA roads (one of the largest component causes). Pre-crash vehicle speeds that result in impact forces above human tolerance limits are most likely a "cause" in the vast majority of all road crashes involving serious injury or death. Efforts to reduce both travel speeds across the network and speeding behaviour are necessary to reduce the burden of injury from crashes where impact speeds are higher than the human body can tolerate.
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(b) The annual road crash publication "Reported Road Crashes in WA" provides numbers and proportions of crashes and injuries for a vast majority of causes/factors identified in the international literature as contributing to road crashes. The terms "factor" and "contributing cause" can be and are commonly used synonymously in road safety. For a list of causes recorded by Police, please refer to question on notice LA2683.
(c) The ORS utilises all available information about crash causes to plan and coordinate evidence-based road safety initiatives, policies, strategies and responses.
(d) The annual road crash publication "Reported Road Crashes in WA" provides numbers and proportions of crashes and injuries for a vast majority of component causes identified in the international literature as contributing to road crashes. The 2004 and 2005 crash books have been reviewed in light of international publications and improvements made relative to previous WA publications. In the 2005 crash book no one table lists all causes in one place to allow readers to prioritise all causes. (The 2005 book is now available at
http://www.officeofroadsafety.wa.gov.au/documents/Annualcrashbook_2005.pdf
).
(e) See (d) above.
(f) While impact speeds (or exact pre-crash vehicle speeds) are not currently collected by police for all serious crashes, police do make an assessment of whether or not speeding was a causal factor in a crash. Based on preliminary data for 2006, speeding was a "cause" in 35% of fatal crashes and 18% of serious crashes attended by police on WA roads (one of the largest component causes). Pre-crash vehicle speeds that result in impact forces above human tolerance limits are most likely a "cause" in the vast majority of all road crashes involving serious injury or death. Efforts to reduce both travel speeds across the network and speeding behaviour are necessary to reduce the burden of injury from crashes where impact speeds are higher than the human body can tolerate.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
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