The UK On The Spot Accident Data Collection Study Phase II Report

In 1999, the UK’s Department for Transport and Highways Agency (HA) commissioned Phase I of the ‘On the Spot’ (OTS 1) accident research project to collect information at the scene of all types of road accidents.

In-depth accident investigations were carried out to study the influence on crash causation and injury mechanisms of human involvement, highway design and vehicle design.

This ambitious work was undertaken to allow research to be conducted that will investigate the causes of crashes, their subsequent injuries and the associated societal costs. It was recognised that only through a detailed knowledge of these complex causal factors will effective countermeasures be developed and, ultimately, successfully applied to improve road transport safety.

Phase I of OTS started in June 2000, ran for three years and three months, and produced a database of over 1,500 accidents from two distinct geographical regions covering all road users and injury severities. Phase II followed on directly with the same investigation teams, regions and infrastructure, and was completed in September 2006. A further 1,500 accident cases have been investigated and information added to the project database.

Phases I and II of the study were undertaken by two investigation teams, from the Vehicle Safety Research Centre (VSRC) at Loughborough University and the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) Limited, working in close co-operation to produce a joint dataset. The teams worked in the Nottinghamshire and Thames Valley Police Force areas respectively, and each investigated 750 crashes per phase of the study.

Throughout the project, VSRC and TRL have developed the methodology and database, improving both the qualitative and quantitative nature of the study. The process of continual enhancement and development of the original integrated protocols (December 1999) has been undertaken with care to ensure there is consistency and compatibility over time, allowing meaningful analysis to be undertaken of all 3,000 OTS investigated crashes, from June 2000 to June 2006. A comprehensive description of methodology and investigations achieved during Phase I was published in November 2005. The executive summary from that report has been included in Appendix 2.

A brief outline of the number and type of accidents investigated in Phase II by each research centre can be found in Appendix 1, and further details may be viewed on the project website (www.ukots.org). In 2005, Britain’s police forces started to use a new coding system to describe the factors that contribute to the causes of injury crashes. This so called Contributory Factors (2005) coding system is routinely completed for each injury crash reported to the police through the STATS19 recording protocols. The OTS investigation methodology was enhanced to incorporate the 2005 Contributory Factors system, and all OTS cases (2000 to 2006) were analysed and the new causation measures applied. Significant proportions of the cases were completed at this time and required a retrospective review of all the investigation notes in order to evaluate all the pertinent details. The Phase I database is fully compatible with the OTS browser designed for Phase II and now also incorporates photographs, scene plans and path videos.