Pedal cycle injuries in NSW: A comparison of data sources

In NSW, police data are used as the basis for Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) accident and injury statistics (after filtering and removal of inconsistencies). These RTA data are the primary data on which decisions regarding motorvehicle and traffic injury prevention policies and programs are based. For a variety of reasons, the RTA injury data are not consistent with comparable motor vehicle accident data from the NSW hospital Inpatient Statistics Collection (ISC). To understand the degree of inconsistency between the RTA and ISC databases and policy implications, we analysed injury data for 1999-2000 for pedal cycle and motor vehicle accidents, applying the same filters. We found that the RTA data consistently over-represented the number of injuries for motor vehicle drivers and passengers, and underestimated the injuries for pedal cycles when compared with hospital data. This finding suggests that the RTA is likely to focus more injury-prevention resources on motor vehicle crashes, and pedal cycle injury prevention is likely to receive fewer resources than is warranted.