New jersey historically has processed all reported accidents within the state. Because of the increased number of accidents and their accompanying increase in processing costs, however, the state decided in summer 1987 to conduct a survey of the states. The purpose ofthe survey was to determine what time- or labor-saving methods had been implemented or investigated by other states to reduce their accident processing costs. From the survey it was concluded that new jersey's accident processing unit was one of the most efficient in thecountry on the basis of the per accident rate. As a result of the large number of accidents, however, the state also had one of the highest total costs. The four most significant cost-saving techniques mentioned by the other states were to (a) implement a data base file to replace the tape-disk system; thus the user would pick up the cost of computer runs for which the processor now pays; (b) raise "property damage only" accidents' threshold or eliminate these accidents from processing completely; this could create savings from the present budget up to 60%; (c) reduce the number of items per accident that are processed; the savings would depend on the items deleted; and (d) have local municipalities or state police input the data from accident forms. Substantial savings could be made in the future; however, there would be start-up and training costs. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1238, Application and management of accident data.
Abstract