Samenvatting
This paper presents a review of previous studies that have sought to apply systems engineering techniques such as causal chain analysis to model how accidents occur, or to evaluate countermeasures. It is the current authors’ opinion that, collectively, the limitations of these studies highlight the importance of the availability of reliable and comprehensive contributory factors data from real-world crashes for use in the development and validation of such models. The paper then considers issues related to therecording of such data in accident reporting systems, with particular reference to the comprehensive systems used in the United Kingdom. (Author/publisher)