A METHOD OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION

Accident investigation and prevention as a new science is considered by the authors to be in its infancy, and fraught with methodological and to some extent terminological problems. The cost to the community of road traffic accidents in Nottinghamshire has been estimated to be in the region of found18M per annum at 1976 prices, and an accident investigation unit comprising engineers, a psychologist and a sociologist together with specialized technical and clerical staff has been established by the county council to tackle the problem. The objectives discussed involve a policy of phased accident reduction over an 8-year programme of 1 1/2 per cent per annum, in line with the county council's financial commitments to the programme. The complex system adopted by the unit is described by reference to a flow diagram, and the relative position of each activity within the system from 'information and data processing' to 'implementation' is described. An example of the unit's investigation procedure is detailed to illustrate how a typical investigation might proceed. As such this was one scheme in an annual reduction programme, and it is shown that for the 42 schemes introduced after April 1974 and before December 1975, the number of accidents saved in the first year was 82, providing an estimated rate of return of more than 240 percent. /TRRL/