Introduction:
In order to prevent road traffic accidents, policy makers in the Netherlands have access to unique data that provide information on traffic injuries and accidents and circumstances of those accidents. Until recently, road safety policy makers in the Netherlands used police registration of road traffic accidents for information on victims and accidents. However, the police registration is not complete, because police officers are not present at all road traffic accidents, especially not at accidents without a collision. A pilot in the province of Fryslân showed that medical registration systems from emergency departments and ambulance services provide a solution to this problem: because they treat many road traffic victims and can give insight in information on victims, accidents and circumstances.

Objectives:
The objective of this project is to make medical information from Emergency Departments and ambulance services available for prevention purposes for the local policy makers in the province of Fryslân, the Netherlands. Methods In 2019 we started a pilot with one regional Emergency Department in Fryslân. After this pilot appeared to be successful, we expanded the registration to all four ED’s and the regional ambulance service. This registration with five medical institutions is still ongoing and provides anonymous information on victims of traffic accidents. VeiligheidNL has developed a dashboard for the province of Fryslân in which crucial information on traffic accidents is shared quarterly with policy makers of the province. Results A community-based registration of road traffic accidents, based on medical records, proves to be successful. From the medical records it is possible to obtain characteristics of victims (age, sex and type of traffic participation) and accidents (like injury mechanism and location). In some cases information is available on road user behaviour and/or infrastructure. This information is summarized and published quarterly in a dashboard available to the province.

Conclusions:
Medical records provide valuable information for prevention of traffic injuries for policy makers. Since the start of the registration in Fryslân, the province has used the results from the local dashboard for different purposes, such as infrastructural adaptations, but also to make decisions on implementing behavioural interventions, especially on vulnerable road users such as cyclists. Fryslân was the first province to use this valuable information, many other provinces in the Netherlands are following this example.

Keywords: Research methods, registration, vulnerable road users, accidents, injuries, community-based, dashboard, prevention

Other info: VeiligheidNL - Amsterdam - Noord Holland - The Netherlands:  Susanne Asscheman, VeiligheidNL - Sipke van der Meulen, Regionaal Orgaan Verkeersveiligheid Fryslân - Susanne Nijman, VeiligheidNL.