Rethinking Electronic Crash Data Collection Transmission Model: Conceptual Framework for Centralized Web-Based Crash Data Collection System

The traffic crash report completed at the roadside by a police officer is the staple for traffic safety analysis. Current systems that automate traffic crash reporting following the so-called transmission model do a good job of assisting officers and agencies with the task of documenting traffic crashes in the field. Typically, these systems use a computer application that is installed on the officer's laptop and collects traffic crash information and stores it for later transmission to a server or other storage system. Although these reports are a significant improvement over the traditional handwritten report, they still fall short of the full promise of automation. This study establishes the method and benefits of moving to a web-based system for traffic crash reporting in the field. A migration to the web-based approach could reduce effort and costs of data collection, improve timeliness and accuracy of crash data, bolster data integration, and improve training and the quality of the crash-reporting software.