Research project CP/39 (Research action CP)
Context
An efficient road safety policy requires having a reliable and representative picture of road unsafety and its evolution. Accident statistics are therefore essential. However the accident statistics, currently available in Belgium have many shortcomings, quantitative as well as qualitative. Indeed many road accidents and victims are not registered and this problem concerns more particularly certain categories of road users involved in an accident, such as cyclists or pedestrians for example. These are thus under-represented in statistics. Little information is also available on the injuries of road users caused by accidents. The evaluation of their consequences is therefore incomplete.
Project description
In order to fill these gaps and to improve the current recording system of accidents data, which are gathered by police forces, the project OPTIMA proposes to complete them with information collected by hospitals where road accidents victims are taken.
OPTIMA aims at studying the setting up of a simple and accurate recording system of accident victims in hospitals and its connection with the accident statistics gathered by police forces.
The project OPTIMA will first analyse how other countries (The Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain) register victims of accidents in their hospitals and how these data are linked to the ones collected by the police.
The current registering system of patients in Belgian hospitals will also be described and compared to the foreign systems studied.
OPTIMA will then realise a pilot-project in the casualty department of the university hospital of Ghent. This pilot-project allows the testing of a new registering system of victims and the examination of the procedure in order to link the by gathered data hospitals with the police data as well as the problems that this transmission to the police will cause. Indeed, the principle of the medical confidentiality has to be taken into account. The pilot-project also allows the evaluation of the workload generated by a possible general implementation of such a system in Belgium as well as the necessary budget. The legislative, technical and organisational measures to be taken for an optimal functioning of the system will also be identified and described. Finally, this project will allow a more precise identification of the type and seriousness of the injuries caused by road accidents and so, an evaluation of the implications of these accidents on health care costs.
At the end of the project, a final report will present the conclusions of the study and the results of the experience carried out in the pilot-project. On this basis, recommendations will be formulated to the attention of the Ministries of Mobility and Transports, Public Health and Social Affairs. The results of the study and of the tested registering system will also be communicated to a larger interested public through publication and colloquium.
Partners
Activities
Among its various activities, the BRSI regularly analyses the accident statistics and their evolution. One of its priorities is to improve the quality, exhaustiveness and recording method of these data.
The Minister of Mobility and Transports has assigned the BRSI to co-ordinate the federal workgroup ‘Road Safety Statistics’ set up in the framework of the Belgian road safety plan. This in order to automatise the registered accidents and to advise the local and provincial authorities on their enforcement plans and activities.
The CSD is an interdisciplinary research group drawing on the knowledge and expertise of nine departments at Ghent University. The aim of the centre is to use an interdisciplinary methodology for the elaboration on sustainable development as a social framework. This approach includes, but is not limited to, research in the following five key fields: social, economic, ecological, institutional and ethical.
Contact Information
Promoter
Patric Derweduwen and Ward Vanlaar
Belgian Road Safety Institute
1405, chaussée de Haecht, B-1130 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2 244 15 11; Fax: +32 (0)2 216 43 42
info@ibsr.be
http://www.ibsr.be
Partner
Ruddy Doom
Universiteit Gent (RUG)
Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD)
Poel 16, B-9000 Gent
Tel: +32 (0)9 264 82 09; Fax: +32 (0)9 264 83 90
johan.demol@rug.ac.be
http://cdonet.rug.ac.be
Users Committee
Following organisations/institutions will be represented in the Users Committee: the Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg, the Limburgs Universitair Centrum, the University Hospital of Ghent, the local police of Ghent and the Permanent Commission of the local police, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Health, the Ministry of Communications and Infrastructure, the College of Public Prosecutors, the Enforcement (Service), the Direction for communication routes and the Direction of the national databank of the federal police, the Coördinatie en steundienst arrondissement Gent, the Provincial traffic unit, the three Belgian Regions.
- Willem Aelvoet - FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu - Brussel
- Didier Antoine - Ministère Wallon de l’Equipement et des Transports (MET) - Namur
- Walter Buylaert - UZ Gent - Gent
- Patric Derweduwen - Federale Commissie voor de Verkeersveiligheid - Brussel
- Gunter Desmet - Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap - Administratie Planning en Statistiek (APS) - Brussel
- F. Ensch-Famenne - FOD Mobiliteit en Vervoer - DG Mobiliteit en Verkeersveiligheid -Brussel
- Peter Hooft - Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap - Administratie Gezondheidszorg - Brussel
- Georges Jamart - Politique scientifique fédérale - Bruxelles
- Serge Kinet - Police fédérale - Direction de la banque de données nationale - Bruxelles
- Léon Luyten - UZ Antwerpen - Dienst Medische Informatie - Edegem
- Ingrid Mertens - FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu - Brussel
- Agnes Meulemans - Belgian Society of Emergency and Disaster Medicine (BESEDIM) - Leuven
- Anne Van de Voorde - Nationaal Instituut voor de Statistiek (NIS) - Brussel
- Johnny Van der Straeten - Belgische Vereniging der Ziekenhuizen - Edegem
- Hilde Van Dongen - Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid - Brussel
- Arthur Vleugels - Centrum voor ziekenhuis en verplegingswetenschap - Leuven
Optimalisatie van de verkeersongevallenstatistieken : eindrapport
Derweduwen, Patric - Doom, Ruddy Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid, 2005 (SP1511)
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