Assessment of the road crash data collection system of Jordan

This study aims to assess the Road Crash Data Recording System (RCDRS) of Jordan to evaluate its comprehensiveness and compliance with internationally accepted manuals, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, and to contribute to improving the country's road safety performance. Therefore, gaps in the existing RCDRSs were identified by interviewing officers at the Public Security Directorate (PSD) and a few of the medical staff at The Royal Hospital, and the extent of the under-reporting issue in the current PSD’s RCDRS was specified through determining the compliance levels using minimum data elements identified and validated by the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) Mapping and Comparison Tool (MCT). Furthermore, the study designed a data collection e-form and customized a crash code for further facilitating the collection and storage of crash data. International best practices were utilized to help improve road safety performance of Jordan. The results revealed that the average compliance percentage for all elements of Jordan’s RCDRS was 40.1%, which is corresponding to the “Low” level. The compliance levels for each category were classified as “High” for Crash (55.6%), “Low” for Road (34.9%), Vehicle (40.7%), and Person (30.7%). The most highlighted areas of improvement were related to Data Recording and Reporting. The study concluded that Jordan’s RCDRS urgently needs to be improved to increase its compliance levels and thus improving safety records. Also, it is pointed out that the level of road safety awareness among Jordanian people is relatively low, contributing to the low level of data reporting. Study’s recommendations included considering using the e-form and the crash code of this study to comprehensively collect, store and deal with crash data alongside conducting regular monitoring and analysis of key risk factors would greatly facilitate data processing, save time, and improve the safety performance. Overall, this study is believed to pave the way for developing an integrated National Road Safety Information System (NRSIS) and implementing it through establishing a lead entity such as Jordan Integrated Road Safety Observatory (JIRSO).