Reaction to accident patterns in Chch

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 4

Reaction to accident patterns in Chch

Christchurch City Council traffic engineers are working on a computer system that will make it easier to react to changing accident patterns on city streets and intersections. The new system is partly a response to problems caused by delays of up to a year in receiving compiled accident statistics from the Ministry of Transport.“We are now getting accident computer tapes early from the Ministry in Wellington and analysing them ourselves.” said Mr Leon Busch, a staff engineer. The tapes can be "decoded into English” by the council’s

computer, and the information will eventually allow the council to get instant accident statistics on intersections and sections of street. “We will keep track much easier of changes in traffic accident patterns,” Mr Bucsh said, “and they could perhaps relate to changes we have made in traffic control.” As engineers spot accident trends faster, they can recommend corrective action that much sooner. They can measure the number of accidents against the volume of traffic and pick out accident “black spots” in the city. “The accident patterns can

change quite dramatically if we change controls,” Mr Busch said. Ministry of Transport statistics record injury accidents involving motorvehicles. There could be six or seven non-injury accidents for each injury accident, and many of the latter accidents are not being reported. “There has been a suggestion that we could get only 70 per cent of the injury accidents actually reported,” said Mr Busch. “But this system will give us information much more readily understood."