The Auckland Car Crash Injury Study is currently being undertaken in the Auckland Region, and aims to identify the causes (driver/human, vehicle, road/environmental) of car crashes in which at least one occupant is killed or hospitalised. Additionally the study will provide information about the prevalence of risk factors for car crash injury among a random selection of the driving population. A case-control study methodology is being used, in which "cases" are cars that have been involved in a crash in which the driver or passenger has been killed or admitted to hospital, and the "controls" are cars stopped randomly at roadside surveys in the region. Information about possible causal factors is obtained from drivers, from vehicle registration data and from roadside surveys of the crash or random stopping site. Over a period of 18 months, an estimated 750 cases and 750 controls are expected to be included in the study. The study base is the motoring public travelling on roads (other than local) in the Auckland Region. An important part of the study is the "controls", and a random method of selection for the location of the control sites, the day of week, time of day, direction travelled, and sampling framework is followed. The scientific approach to all elements of the study validates the study outcomes. (A)
Samenvatting