GEORGIA
Improving Georgia's Traffic Records

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
In Georgia, during the past 50 years, more than 68,000 people have lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes. In 1998 alone, 1,579 people died and 133,034 were injured in 293,251 crashes. In order to prevent crash-related fatalities and injuries, it is essential that traffic safety specialists have access to timely, comprehensive traffic records. These records are requisites to analysis of the many variables which comprise a crash. However, state highway safety data have historically been maintained in isolated databases and files, within multiple governmental agencies, without oversight responsibility from any one source. This has resulted in inaccurate and out-of-date traffic information, which, in turn, has impeded crash and injury prevention efforts.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
In 1999, the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety developed the Improving Georgia's Traffic Records project to help reduce the number of motor vehicle crash-related injuries and fatalities throughout the state. This goal was to be accomplished through the following objectives:

• Designing a statewide database system to record crash data
• Devising a strategy for recording data at the scene of a motor vehicle crash
• Forming a partnership among all state and community safety agencies for collaboration on a new traffic records system

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
The Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety developed a strategy for improving the state's traffic records system, which consisted of a five-part approach:

• Establishing the Traffic Records Coordinating Committee (TRCC) to oversee the effort, provide leadership, and hire a Traffic Records Coordinator to staff the project
• Inventorying all data management hardware, software, and data structure currently in use throughout the state by data providers, custodians and users
• Supporting development of an automated crash reporting system, complete with PC- based crash reporting software for use at a crash scene. The system would eliminate secondary data entry, decreasing time and cost for data processing and transmission, and improving data accuracy
• Establishing an affiliation with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Transportation Safety Information Management System (TSIMS). Participation in the national TSIMS provides the operational environment to improve Georgia's traffic records
• Enhancing the street name database maintained by the Georgia Department of Transportation

RESULTS
Since development of the project concept by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety in 1999, several activities have been accomplished:

• The TRCC was created, and members appointed in January 2000
• A Traffic Records Coordinator was hired by the TRCC in May 2000
• A software programmer was selected, and software development has begun
• A field officer was designated to provide critical linkages among the data custodians, the reporting agencies and the data users

In addition, an inventory of existing data management efforts has begun, and will be fully implemented by September 2000. Georgia has joined TSIMS, and is participating in the initial stages of program development. Programming efforts have also begun on improving the street name databas, a joint effort between the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Georgia Technology Research Institute. The two organizations are also engaged in developing a new program that will locate crashes statewide.

SUMMER 2000