posted on 2006-02-06, 11:30authored byGilles Vallet, B. Laumon, Jean-Louis Martin, Philippe Lejeune, Pete Thomas, R. Ross, I. Kossmann, Dietmar Otte, B. Sexton
A single European-wide crash injury database, or a compilation of individual, comparable databases, would be
of exceptional benefit to the legislation process at an EU level. A direct, data driven approach would allow
identification of any safety problems at an early stage, and facilitate a quick and accurate evaluation of any new
or remedial measures, including legislation, that may have been implemented. The aim of STAIRS is to make
the first moves towards such a goal. It involves the standardisation of in-depth road accident data collection and
methodologies that would provide the core data and basic framework for crash injury studies. It is intended that
existing groups will be able to adopt the protocol within their existing studies but it is anticipated that the groups
will normally add to it to reflect special research concerns. The protocol is intended to facilitate rather than
restrict any investigations, so it does not prescribe a particular approach that must be adopted in every case.
Rather it provides a set of requirements, for the final datasets in particular, in terms of the core variables and the
case selection criteria that will lead to comparability of datasets. This will bring about a European-wide
agreement on how to collect this type of information, and if followed, will lead to comparable databases being
held in each country that adopts and follows the protocol developed.
Funding
Project funded by the European Commission under the Transport RTD programme of the 4th Framework Programme.