Data Collection

Crash Data Improvement Program (CDIP) Final Report

APPENDIX B: ORIGINAL CDIP PRE-VISIT QUESTIONNAIRE

CRASH DATA IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM QUESTIONNAIRE FOR COMPLETION PRIOR TO STATE VISIT

These questions should be distributed to and completed by manager(s) or individuals most knowledgeable about the State's crash data and systems.

ADMINISTRATIVE

• Which Department/Agency is the main custodian of the state's crash database?
• Which section/office within that department has the principal responsibility for managing/maintaining the crash database?
• Who is the individual responsible for administering/managing the crash database? What is their position/job title? Provide their contact information (mailing address, phone, fax, email)?

PART 1 – CRASH DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING PROCESS OVERVIEW

1. Identify each step in the process and flow of data from the crash event to the completion and review of the crash report, through the data entry process in the State's crash data system. Where relevant, please describe the differences in processing of paper versus electronic crash reports. (If available, please provide a flow chart showing the processes.)
2. How many crash data system personnel are there in your office and what are their roles (data entry, supervision, location coding, data validation and correction, other)?
3. Are other offices are involved in the Crash Reporting process? What are their roles (for instance, locating crashes to a statewide base map based on location information from the crash form)? What type of coordination is there among the offices involved in the process?
4. Are there any changes to this process being considered?
5. Does your state have a relational database for crashes?
6. What type of data structure does your state currently have (e.g. SQL, Oracle, etc.)?
7. In your opinion, how can the crash data collection processes be improved in your State (refer to steps in the flow chart)?

PART II. CRASH DATA COLLECTION SPECIFICS

Reportable Crashes

1. What is the law or statute that requires law enforcement officers to investigate and report on fatal, injury and property damage only crashes? Does the law or statute specify a time limit within which the crash must be submitted to the state crash database? Are there any reasons that a law enforcement agency might have an incentive for not providing crash reports in a timely manner? (for example, municipality charges fees to the public for providing crash report)
2. What is the minimum reporting threshold ($, towaway, other?) for a property damage only crash?
3. How many law enforcement agencies within your State are responsible for investigating crashes and submitting reports?
4. Does the state have a standard Police Accident Report (PAR) form that is used by all agencies in the state? If multiple forms are used, how many different versions of the PAR form are being used?
5. Are any law enforcement agencies collecting crash data electronically at the crash scene? If 'yes', how many (or what percentage) agencies? Do the electronically collected data identically match the data elements and attributes on the paper PAR elements?
6. Does the state have a single electronic crash software product for use by all law enforcement? If not, is there a standard for data submissions to be attained by all electronic reporting systems? Does the state have the capability of receiving and downloading data collected on software other than the state supported 'standard' software?
7. Are any data verified electronically at the crash scene? If so, which data are verified? What technologies are used for the verification? What are the data verified against (e.g. driver license file, vehicle registration file)?
8. By what process(es) are PARs from law enforcement agencies submitted to the crash database (mail, internet, secure electronic upload, CDs)?
9. Does the state have the capability to accept electronic uploads of PARs directly from law enforcement agencies? Are there edit checks/validations run by the crash database on the PARs submitted electronically, prior to uploading the data?
10. Do the field data collection software products require the same set of edit checks for completion of a crash report as are required for that report's acceptance into the State's crash data system? (if not, how do the field data collection edit checks differ from the centralized system's checks?)
11. Does your state use a supplemental form to collect specific crash data information (for instance, information on commercial motor vehicles involved in crashes or on BAC test results) or is the data collected on a single form? If 'yes', what determines whether the supplement is filled out at the scene?
12. Are there any plans to modify/update the crash or supplemental forms in your State? If 'yes', when and who will be involved?
13. What feedback has your state received regarding problems with either the paper or electronic PAR from the following persons:
    1. Police Officers
    2. Crash from reviewer (officer supervisor)
    3. Data entry person
    4. Other

PART III. STATE DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES

1. Does the state currently have a process(es) for assessing the quality of the information within the crash database in terms of its (Please indicate the appropriate response):

2. Does the state conduct separate quality assessment procedures for PARs that are submitted on paper versus those submitted electronically?

Timeliness

Overall Measures of Timeliness

1. What output measure(s) of timeliness are currently reported for your state? (e.g. average days for reports to be entered into the database, percentage of cases reported within 30 days, percentage of cases over 90 days etc.)
2. Are these output measure(s) routinely calculated? If 'yes' please describe how this calculation is derived. If available, please provide sample reports of this output measure.

Component Measures of Timeliness

4. Does the state assess the time it takes to complete each step in the data entry process? (Refer back to the 'Flow Chart' in Part 1, Question 1).
5. If no flow chart was provided, a listing of possible data entry component steps is provided below. Please identify which, if any, of these component steps are used by the state, does the state calculate the time each of these component steps takes to complete
   1. Time from crash occurrence until receipt at the state crash database
   2. Time for edit or validation checks on the data included in the PAR.
   3. Time for coding of locations
   4. Time for other processes required prior to data entry onto the state crash database (e.g., some states delay processing to ensure driver reports are collected or to allow time for verification of financial responsibility).

Assessing the Timeliness of Individual Agency Report Submission

8. Does the state measure the time it takes to get the PARs from each individual law enforcement agency? If' 'yes', how is this measure calculated?
9. Has the state developed a 'year-to-date' measure that calculates how many PARs were submitted for each law enforcement agency in the same time- period during the prior year?
10. If the state has developed a 'year-to-date' measure, does the state have a procedure for reporting to law enforcement agencies on the timeliness of their crash report submissions? If 'yes', what is the period or frequency with which the agencies are notified about their timeliness?

Accuracy

Overall Measures of Accuracy

1. What output measure(s) of accuracy are currently reported for your state? (e.g. less than five errors per PAR, number of PARs returned to the submitting agency for corrections, zero errors on 'critical' data elements, etc.)
2. Are these output measure(s) routinely calculated? If 'yes' please describe how this calculation is derived. If available, please provide sample reports of this output measure.

Component Measures of Accuracy – Content Assessment

4. Does the state have a 'data dictionary' or other documentation that identifies and/or defines all of the data elements that are reportable to the crash database and their attributes, range of allowed values, and logical consistency among various data elements?
5. Does the state run a procedure to assess the content (attributes) for each of the data elements within the crash database (e.g. a descriptive analysis reporting the frequencies or percentages of responses)?
6. Does the state compile a listing of the data elements with the error type and frequency (or percentage) of error results reported? (e.g. number of errors per data element)

Component Measures of Accuracy – Relational Assessment

7. Does the state run a procedure to assess the relational content of information? (e.g. business edits and validations to assess the logical relations between date elements)
8. Does the state compile a listing of the type and frequency of relational errors? (e.g. number of errors identified by the business edits and data element validations)

Assessing the Accuracy of Individual Agencies

9. Does the state measure the accuracy of reports from individual law enforcement agencies submitting crash reports? If 'yes', how is this measure calculated?
10. Does the state have a procedure for reporting to law enforcement agencies on the accuracy of their crash report submissions? If 'yes', what is the period or frequency with which the agencies are notified about their accuracy?

Completeness

Overall Measures of Completeness

1. What output measure(s) of completeness are currently reported for your state? (e.g. less than five total omissions per PAR, less than five omissions of critical elements per PAR, the number of PARs returned to the submitting agency for the additional information, etc.)
2. Are these output measure(s) routinely calculated? If 'yes' please describe how this calculation is derived. If available, please provide sample reports of this output measure.

Component Measures of Completeness – Content Assessment

1. Does the state run a procedure to assess the presence of content (attributes) for each of the data elements within the crash database?
2. Does the state compile a listing of the data elements with their error frequency (omissions) results reported? (e.g. number and/or percent of errors per data element)

Component Measures of Completeness – 'Unknowns' Assessment

5. Does the state run a procedure to assess the frequency with which 'unknown' is the reported value for each of the data elements within the crash database?
6. Does the state compile a listing of the data elements identifying the frequency with which 'unknown' is the reported response? (e.g. a descriptive analysis listing the frequency and/or percentage of 'unknowns' per data element)

Assessing the Completeness of Individual Agencies

7. Does the state measure the completeness of reports from individual law enforcement agencies submitting crash reports? If 'yes', how is this measure calculated?
8. Does the state have a procedure for reporting to law enforcement agencies on the completeness of their crash report submissions? If 'yes', what is the period or frequency with which the agencies are notified about their completeness?

Consistency

Overall Measures of Consistency

1. What output measure(s) of consistency are currently reported for your state? (e.g. all law enforcement agencies reporting crashes use a standard crash report form, all law enforcement agencies report identical data elements with identical data attributes, number of law enforcement agencies not using the standard PAR)
2. Does the State track consistency of reporting by law enforcement agencies (i.e. tracking ratios for fatal, injury, property damage only by year to date)? If 'yes', please describe how?
3. Are these output measure(s) routinely calculated? If 'yes', please describe how the calculation is derived. If available, please provide sample reports of this output measure.

Integration

Overall Measures of Integration

1. What output measure(s) of integration are currently reported for your state? (e.g. a count of the number of databases the crash database is linked to, for example the crash database linked to the driver licensing database and/or the vehicle registration database)
2. Are these output measure(s) routinely calculated? If 'yes', please describe how the calculation is derived. If available, please provide sample reports of this output measure.

Accessibility

Overall Measure of Accessibility

1. What output measure(s) of accessibility are currently reported for your state? (e.g. a count of the number of requests for crash data fulfilled by the agency/department that maintains the crash database, number of agencies that have on-line access to the crash database)
2. Are these output measure(s) routinely calculated? If 'yes', please describe how the calculation is derived. If available, please provide sample reports of this output measure.

PART IV – CRITICAL DATA ELEMENTS Crash Location

• Does the state have a process to locate each crash onto a statewide base map of all of the roads in the state? Is there one standard for location coding used on all public roads, or does the location coding for state-maintained roads differ from that used for local roads?

• Does the crash database custodial office perform the 'crash locating' function or is this effort managed by another office within the state?

• Has the state assessed what percentage of reportable crashes are not able to be located onto the statewide base map? Has the state assessed how long this crash locating process takes? If yes, please provide the corresponding measures of accuracy/completeness and timeliness.

Other Critical Crash Variables

1. Does the state crash database include the vehicle identification numbers of crash involved vehicles?
2. Does the state crash database include the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) test results of crash involved drivers?
3. Does the state crash database include the officer reported restraint system (or helmet use for motorcycle operators and riders) for all of the occupants of crash involved vehicles?
4. Does the state crash database include the investigating officer's identification of first harmful event and/or the sequence of events involved in each crash?
5. Are a narrative and diagram required on all crash reports? Does the state track the percentage of reports received with inadequate, incomplete, or missing narratives or diagrams?