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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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 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 s
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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. Finally…it’s goodbye from me
Best point of contact until my replacement starts is Paul Baden
General road safety statistics account
Stats19 data supply account
Or call on
DfT update - CRASH and other things...
November 18