DfT update – current priorities and CRASH Daryl Lloyd, Department for Transport 2 March 2017 DfT update - CRASH and other things...

CRASH progress Adopted by 21 police forces Pilot 1: Surrey in 2012 Pilot 2: Staffordshire in May 2015 Deployment started in Oct / Nov 2015 Ended in May 2016 The system is available to any other force which wants to adopt it Potential for a few more once ‘mobile’ DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Benefits delivered (outside of police forces) Increase in speed in data delivery Non-CRASH – average lag of 70 days between collision and report arriving at DfT CRASH – this is down to 35 days Reduction in the number of errors in DfT data load – especially the ‘hard errors’ However, we are seeing increases in errors for some forces: typically those for which we used to get an ‘LA- cleansed’ version of the data We are still happy to take ‘LA-cleansed’ versions of CRASH data at the end of the year – we will use these data dumps to fix the variables that LAs typically improve DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Ongoing concerns and problems In some cases data quality still not good enough Location data in particular still need improving Some authorities have had problems getting access to postcodes Data exports can still only go to .gov.uk addresses Uplift in seriously injured casualties DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Uplift in seriously injured casualties Considerable evidence that forces which have adopted CRASH have had much larger increases in seriously injured casualties than the other forces Possible mechanisms: Over-use of ‘admitted to hospital’ flag Result from a change from ‘severity-based’ data to ‘injury-based’ data Use of ‘other head injury’ (which is a ‘serious’ injury) rather than ‘bruising’, etc DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Proportion of injured casualties who are seriously injured May ’15 Oct ’15 Nov ’15 Dec ’15 Jan ’16 Mar ’16 Apr ’16 Staffs. CoLP Essex Gloucs. Cumbria Kent Durham Herts. W. Mids. D&C Suffolk Humber Northum. Beds. Warks. Norfolk Cambs. W. Mercia S. Yorks. Proportion of injured casualties who are seriously injured DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Potential explanation Over-use of ‘admitted to hospital’ flag Little evidence of this happening Although some forces use the flag more than others, it cannot account for much of the increase Issued further guidance to forces to stress that this does not include ‘attended A&E’ Use of ‘other head injury’ (which is a ‘serious’ injury) rather than ‘bruising’, etc This is a possibility – some forces use it more than others Might be contributing, but not sure that it accounts for much of the change Proposing to change the wording to ‘other head injury (excluding minor cuts and bruises)’ Result from a change from ‘severity-based’ data to ‘injury-based’ data Believe this is the main reason It is hard for officers to judge severity at the roadside – especially if they don’t have a copy of Stats20 handy! Much easier to record actual injury suffered DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Implications Large rise in KSI / serious injuries Particularly problematic for organisations with targets If the new method is more ‘accurate’ / reliable, this suggests that the old figures were unrecording DfT will calculate a back-series of data What we think the serious injury figures would have been had all forces used the CRASH-method Ideally we will also have some simple multiplication factors by road type and road user type to convert between ‘severity-based’ and ‘injury-based’ figures – we will publish these for other users Next Stats19 review: likely to unify everyone with an injury-based system (irrespective of recording tool used) DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Forthcoming CRASH improvements (version 7) CRASH will continue to be developed Version 7 development has started already – expect it to be out late autumn 2017 Will include a number of improvements for the police, but will focus on things that affect data users here Data extract can go to any email address Photos, etc, can be uploaded to the system A new field for ‘impaired by drugs’ will be added Additional configuration for the daily summary emails Improvements to vehicle movement input Big one: significantly improved location input screen Based on OS Open Roads data Automatically capturing data from the road network DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Map search results DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Veh movement DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Cluster mapping tool DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Other things – definitely happening Informal consultation on whether we can allow data from mobile devices in CRASH to not include the “very likely” / “possible” variable for contributory factors. This is to make data entry easier Paul Baden will either have been in contact with data users directly, or via the main software providers Progressing making reporting collisions and accidents online lawful Using a legislative reform order (LRO) Will be finished in early 2018 This will be coupled with the development of an online tool tied to CRASH (which will also collect some basic information on damage-only accidents) Started preparation for the next Stats19 review Will need to look hard at whether we need the police to collect all variables for collision Consultation on this will go out during summer DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Other things – possibly happening Looking to move CRASH off the Police National Computer Service It will still retain the links to PNC data (e.g. vehicle and driving licence records But it would make it much easier for local authorities to get direct access to the system Carry out data cleansing in CRASH Upload ‘fixes’ from other packages? Access non-sensitive non-stats19 data Reduce the cost of the service Timescales for this – perhaps 18 months? DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18

Finally…it’s goodbye from me Best point of contact until my replacement starts is Paul Baden (paul.baden@dft.gsi.gov.uk) General road safety statistics account (roadacc.stats@dft.gsi.gov.uk) Stats19 data supply email account (stats19@dft.gsi.gov.uk) Or call on 020 7944 6595 DfT update - CRASH and other things... November 18