Crash data evaluations to improve Illinois
highway safety
Send a link to a friend
[DEC. 29, 2004]
SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois
Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Public
Health announced today that they are in the process of developing a
new database that will assist in highway safety decision-making. The
Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System database, known as CODES, is
being funded by a $281,000 federal grant from the National Highway
Transportation Safety Administration.
|
"CODES will allow us to link our crash
records with public health records to get a better picture of the
relationship between crashes and injuries," Department of
Transportation Secretary Timothy W. Martin said. "We will be able to
see if there are connections between particular types of crashes and
injury severity. We can then use this information to make
improvements and enhance traffic safety."
The CODES system will allow staff from
the departments of Transportation and Public Health to match traffic
crash reports with health care data from a variety of sources,
including emergency medical service records, hospital discharges and
death certificates.
The Department of Transportation's
Division of Traffic Safety will use the CODES information to support
their decisions to improve traffic safety on Illinois highways.
Eventually, the CODES system will be able to better identify the
full extent of injuries suffered as a result of impaired driving,
not wearing safety belts and not wearing a helmet on a motorcycle.
[to top of second column in
this article]
 |

"By bringing this data together, we
will get a better look at the impact of safety equipment on the
types of injuries suffered in traffic crashes," said Department of
Public Health Director Dr. Eric E. Whitaker. "The traffic crash
reports are filled out by police, most of whom do not have the
medical training for accurate injury assessment. By linking crash
data with health care data, we will have a more complete picture."
All individual medical and crash
information will remain strictly confidential in compliance with
state and federal regulations. The departments of Transportation and
Public Health are currently in the process of beginning to develop
the database and hope to have the full CODES system up and running
by the middle of 2005.
[Illinois
Department of Transportation news release]
 |