Assessing quality of existing data sources on road traffic injuries (RTIs) and their utility in informing injury prevention in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed whether the quality of the available road traffic injury (RTI) data was sufficient for determining the burden of RTIs in the Western Cape Province and for implementing and monitoring road safety interventions. METHODOLOGY: Underreporting was assessed by comparing data reported by the South African Police Services (SAPS) in 2008 with data from 18 provincial mortuaries. Completeness of the driver death subset of all RTIs was assessed using the capture-recapture method. RESULTS: The mortuary and police data sets comprised 1696 and 860 fatalities respectively for the year 2008. The corresponding provincial road traffic mortality rates were as follows: 32.2 deaths/100,000 population per year (95% confidence interval [CI]: 30.7-33.8) and 16.3 deaths/100,000 population per year (95% CI: 15.3-17.5). The police data set contained 820,960 crashes, involving 196,889 persons, indicating substantial duplication of crash events. There were varying proportions of missing data for demographic and other identifying variables, with age missing in nearly half of the cases in the police data set. The estimated total number of driver deaths/year was 588.6 (95% CI: 544.4-632.8), yielding estimated completeness of the mortuary and police data sets of 57.6 and 46.4 percent separately and 77.3 percent combined. CONCLUSION: This study found extensive data quality problems, including missing data, duplication, and significant underreporting of traffic injury deaths in the police data. Not all assumptions underlying the use of capture-recapture method were met in this study; hence, the estimates provided by this analysis should be interpreted with caution. There is a need to address the problems highlighted by this study in order to improve data utility for informing road safety policies. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.

Drivers' risk profile indicates the need for a graduated driving licence in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Current driver mortality estimates do not consider the great differences in exposure across the population, giving a false impression that driver deaths are lowest in the youngest age group. Interventions to reduce risk among the younger age group include graduated driver licensing (GDL) - a three-phase licensing system for novice drivers consisting of a learner's permit, a provisional license, and a full license. OBJECTIVES: We calculated driver fatality rates per 10 000 registered drivers in each age group and assessed the need for stricter licensing conditions for novice and younger drivers. METHODS: Age-specific driver mortality rates were calculated using Western Cape Province 2008 mortuary data. The total number of licensed drivers in each age group served as the denominator. Incidence rate ratios were calculated using the age group of 65 - 79 years as the reference. Chi-square test of trend on incidence rate ratios for the age groups was done. Statistical significance was set as p<0.05. RESULTS: There were 339 driver deaths; mean age was 39.4±13.8 years, and males accounted for 80% of the deaths. Age-specific driver mortality rates were highest in the youngest age group (15 - 19 years). There was a significant progressive decrease (except for the age group 45 - 49 years) in the risk of death from road traffic injuries with increasing age compared with the age group ≥ 65 years (chi2 for trend p<0.0001). CONCLUSION; This study showed a relationship between driver's mortality risk and younger age, and underscores the need for introduction of a GDL programme in South Africa.