| Annex B |
| The Collection Of Road Accident Statistics |
|
| The Road Accident statistics are compiled
from returns made by police forces. For each injury road accident known to have occurred
in their areas, the police authorities complete a statistical return (which is called a
"Stats 19" return), which provides details of the accident circumstances,
separate information for each vehicle which was involved in the accident, and separate
information for each person who was injured in the accident. Annex C provides example
forms, which show the kinds of information that are collected in the statistical returns. |
|
| The statistical returns cover all accidents
in which a vehicle is involved that occur on roads (including footways) and result in
death or personal injury, if they become known to the police. It should be noted that the
vehicle need not be moving, and need not be in collision - for example, the returns
include accidents involving people alighting from buses. Road accidents in which no-one is
injured ("damage only" accidents) are not included in this definition,
and The Scottish Office does not receive statistics of such accidents. This publication
therefore cannot give any figures for "damage only" accidents. |
|
| Full guidance on the completion of the
"Stats 19" statistical returns, including detailed notes and definitions of the
coverage of the returns and of the information to be provided in each field, is given in a
document produced by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR),
called "Instructions for the Completion of Road Accident Reports" (which is also
referred to as the "Stats 20"). |
|
| The returns for accidents in Scotland are
submitted every month by the police authorities, either directly or with the assistance of
a local Council, to The Scottish Office. All the returns should first be subject to the
validity and consistency checks specified in a document produced by The Scottish Office
called "Procedures for Submitting Road Accident Data to The Scottish Office"
(which is also referred to as the Scottish Edition of "Stats 21"). The Scottish
Office also applies these checks, and clears any errors that it finds with the Police
authorities. The returns are added to The Scottish Office Transport Statistics branch's
database, which contains statistical information about all injury road accidents in
Scotland since 1979. |
|
| The Transport Statistics branch's records for
accidents which occurred on Motorways and A roads are copied to the National Roads
Directorate of The Scottish Office, which maintains a database of information about trunk
roads. From all the Motorway and A road accidents, the ones which occurred on trunk roads
are identified using their grid references, and the information about them is put onto the
National Roads Directorate database. The Transport Statistics branch is subsequently
informed which of these accidents occurred on trunk roads, and its database is updated
accordingly. |
|
| Similar returns are made throughout Great
Britain. The Scottish Office sends a copy of the Scottish data to DETR, which holds a
database of accident records which covers the whole of Great Britain. |
