Evidence-Based Road Safety Practice in India: Assessment of the Adequacy of Publicly Available Data in Meeting Requirements for Comprehensive Road Safety Data Systems

Figures & data

Table I Framework used in evaluating adequacy of national road safety database in India

Domain	Definition	Example of indicators
Cost	Direct and indirect medical or socioeconomic cost associated with traffic crashes	Medical costs, material and intervention costs, productivity losses, traffic jams (lost time), loss of life/quality of life
Outcome indicators	Crash data including the burden of road traffic crashes, injuries, and death	Crashes, injuries, and deaths (combined with additional data such as age, gender, residence, etc.)
Safety performance indicators	Operational conditions that influence the likelihood of injuries and deaths from road crashes	Speeding, alcohol, helmet use, road infrastructure, vehicle safety, trauma management
Process/implementation indicators	National or local policies and interventions designed to reduce the road traffic crashes, injuries, and deaths	Road safety policies, plans, programs, implementation of interventions
Source: WHO (2010) and data systems.

Table II Availability of outcome indicators and sociodemographic correlates in NCRB database, India

	National level			State level
Indicator	Available	Coverage years	Most recent estimate	Available	Coverage years	Most recent range
Road traffic crashes	Yes	1967–2009	421,628	Yes	1967–2009	87–60,409
Road traffic injuries	Yes	1967–2009	466,600	NA	—	—
Road traffic deaths	Yes	1967–2009	126,896	Yes	1967–2009	50–14,829
Number of registered vehicles ^a	Yes	1967–2009	89,618	Yes	1967–2009	22,000–10,966
Road length (km)	NA	—	—	NA	—	—
Timing of road crashes	Yes	2009	Most crashes (61%) occur between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm. 12% occur between 9:00 pm and midnight	Yes	2009	Relative distribution differs by state
Gender distribution	Yes	2009	85% of deaths in males, 15% in females	Yes	2009	Relative distribution differs by state
Age distribution	Yes	2009	86% of deaths in 15- to 59-year group, 65% of deaths in 15- to 44-year group	NA	—	—
Urban–rural distribution	NA	—	—	NA	—	—
Fatal crashes by type of vehicle	Yes	2009	21% due to 2-wheelers, 20% due to trucks/lorries; 10% due to buses, 17% due to cars/jeep	Yes	2009	Relative distribution differs by state
Fatal crashes by road users category	Yes	2009	9% of crashes involve pedestrians, 91% vehicle occupants	NA	—	—
^a Number of vehicles actually operating not reported.
Source: NCRB (2010).

Table III Availability of outcome indicators and sociodemographic correlates from MORTH, India

	National level			State level
Indicator	Available	Coverage years	Most recent estimate	Available	Coverage years	Most recent range
Road traffic crashes	Yes	1970–2009	486,384	Yes	2006–2009	63–71,996
Road traffic injuries	Yes	1970–2009	515,458	Yes	2006–2009	151–70,504
Road traffic deaths	Yes	1970–2009	125,660	Yes	2006–2009	55–14,770
Number of registered vehicles ^a	Yes	1970–2009	114,951	NA	—	—
Road length (km)	Yes	1970–2008	4,109,592	NA	—	—
Timing of road crashes	Yes	2009	Most crashes (63%) occur between 9 am and 9 pm	NA	—	—
Gender distribution	NA	—	—	NA	—	—
Age distribution	Yes	2009	53% of crashes involve 25- to 65-year-olds, 30% involve 15- to 24-year-olds	NA	—	—
Urban–rural distribution	Yes	2009	53% of crashes and 62% of crashes/deaths occurred in rural areas	Yes	2009	Relative distribution differs by state
Fatal crashes by type of vehicle	Yes	2009	Two-wheelers (22%) and cars and jeeps (16%) accounted for the majority of crashes	Yes	2009	Relative distribution differs by state
Fatal crashes by road user category	Yes	2009	13% of crashes involved pedestrians, 83% involved occupants	Yes	2009	Relative distribution differs by state
^a Number of vehicles actually operating not reported.
Source: MORTH (2009).

Table IV Availability of safety indicators in MORTH data, India

	National level			State level
Indicator	Available	Coverage years	Most recent estimate	Available	Coverage years	Most recent range
Speeding attributable road traffic crashes	Yes	2009	219,305	Yes	2009	0–31,534
Speeding attributable road traffic deaths	Yes	2009	53,192	Yes	2009	0–6407
Speeding attributable road traffic injuries	Yes	2009	236,197	Yes	2009	0–31,008
Alcohol attributable road traffic crashes ^a	Yes	2009	27,152	Yes	2009	0–4480
Alcohol attributable road traffic injuries ^a	Yes	2009	30,264	Yes	2009	0–5594
Alcohol attributable road traffic deaths ^a	Yes	2009	9307	Yes	2009	0–1668
Helmet	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Road infrastructure	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Vehicle safety	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Trauma management	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
^a Estimates for drugs and alcohol combined.
Source: MORTH (2009).