Road crash data and, in particular, the number of serious injury crashes, enable the proper monitoring and evaluation of road safety programs. In an environment where government budgets are highly scrutinised for efficiency and effectiveness, and competition for funds is increasing, development and implementation of cost-effective programs become even more critical. The definition of what constitutes a "serious injury" differs across Australia, despite efforts by Austroads to develop a Minimum Common Dataset, commencing over two years ago. A number of practical difficulties present in some states have so far prevented this. Austroads' Performance Indicators with respect to serious injury data, therefore, can only be used with the knowledge that the input data varies between Australian jurisdictions. At the National Road Safety Summit Conference in 1998, there was strong support for extending the measurement of the road safety challenge to serious injury, not just fatalities. This makes achieving a standard definition crucial. In the event that a standard definition is not achievable, it would be important to recognise the differences in each jurisdiction. The objective of this paper is to present the various practices existing for the collection and definition of serious injury crash data, and identify possible avenues to achieve a common definition. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E202275.
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