There are multiple sources of information about road traffic collisions in Great Britain. Here at TRL we have access to all of them. In addition, we have experienced researchers and qualified forensic collision investigators who understand how to interpret the data in terms of cause and effect, using the Safe System principles. We also have specialist data scientists who can combine and query the data to reveal trends and patterns that deliver important answers to key questions; insights that will help evidence policy, guide strategy and inform solution development.

Our principal source of data is from RAIDS, a large complex dataset which stores hundreds of data points for over 2000 incidents, the majority of which are serious and fatal.

RAIDS is a UK Government funded research programme operated and managed by TRL, which investigates the causes and consequences of collisions. These investigations differ from those of the police because they are designed to understand how people are injured rather than necessarily determine responsibility for the collision. The data collected is also significantly more detailed than STATS19 information.

In-depth studies provide an opportunity to understand how crashes occur and, from this understanding, contribute to the development of safer roads and safer vehicles.

The data collected will help:

• identify the crash scenarios, including contributory factors relating to the vehicle, road and road users, which lead to collisions of varying severities
• identify how people are injured in road traffic collisions, the injuries they sustain, and how these correlate to vehicle characteristics and highway design features
• establish the extent to which a range of safety related measures have reduced the risk of injury to road users involved in collisions
• identify countermeasures & interventions to further reduce the risk of collisions and the severity of injuries (in terms of vehicle design and safety, the road environment and traffic management and human factors)

Outlined below are a number of our chargeable services to support your research using this data.

Familiarisation with the Road Accident In-Depth Studies (RAIDS) database

To exploit this rich dataset fully requires familiarity with the structure. TRL built RAIDS; we understand how it works. This simple overview service will provide a basic introduction to the hierarchy of nested fields, enough to equip you with the confidence to start using the dataset yourself, saving time figuring things out and potential delays. This service is principally aimed at researchers who wish to have direct access to the data to perform their own research tasks.

RAIDS data export service

With over 3000 fields in RAIDS it can be difficult to understand what you need to select and in what sequence, in order to achieve the aims of your research. For speed, some researchers prefer to give us their question and leave us to build the report and generate the data outputs. When using this service, there is the additional option for researchers to request the data to be scaled up to national level by cross referencing it with other data sources such as STATS19 and using our in-house developed statistical models. Another benefit of this service is that the query model can remain available for researchers to run periodically to track changes over time.

Research deep dives: case study service

With over 2000 RAIDS cases to explore, the summary data from a query is just one way to generate insight; individual cases can be used to highlight and evidence your work. Case studies underpin a particular message or outcome, and help get the point across in a simple, easy to understand manner. This “Deep Dive” service will find appropriate cases for you and provide specialist interpretation of the data points. Sometimes the absence of data is as illuminating as its presence, or the particular wording used to populate a field may make more sense when contextualised with the procedure used to collect the data.

Bespoke collision research service

Let us deliver a package tailored for you. Set us the problem and we will assign Collision Investigators, Human Factors, Biomechanics, and Vehicle Design specialists, plus data scientists to find the data, analyse and report on the findings.  This service is a very efficient way to make best use of the information we can access. From your initial question we will advise on the possible scope of work and methods we can use. We engage with you throughout as the research progresses in case unexpected results prompt a change of course. The outputs are independent, robust, and validated by experts.

Please get in touch to discuss your requirements and together we can select and customise the research service to meet your needs.Email raids@trl.co.uk