Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data provide a means of monitoring the number of road traffic accident casualties admitted overnight to hospital. This provides an alternative, but not equivalent, measure to the number of seriously injured casualties reported to the police and compiled by the Department for Transport under STATS19 data. Comparison with HES data can complement and inform the current use of STATS19 data to monitor casualty reduction targets. Trends in the number of road accident casualties admitted to hospital as recorded in HES shows a lower fall in recent years than the number of seriously injured casualties recorded in STATS19 data. Such differences may reflect either a decrease in the level of reporting of casualties to or by the police and / or that the number of the most severely injured casualties has declined less than the number of casualties classified as "seriously injured" in STATS19 but not sufficiently seriously injured as to require admission to hospital. In addition to the research reported here the Department for Transport also has also published a research report Under-reporting of road casualties - Phase 1 (Road Safety Research Report No. 69) into under-reporting in STATS19. The report aims to assess the overall levels of under-reporting in STATS19 and provides a comprehensive review of previous studies of under-reporting. This report is available from the Department's website at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_rdsafety/documents/page/dft_r… (Author/publisher)
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