Transportation & Health Data

Linking crash report data with health data has the potential to improve safety analysis and influence a broad range of outcomes, from individual behavior to transportation, planning and public health policy on local, state and national levels. Results from the data linkage projects listed below will be posted here as they become available.

Linking Health Outcome Data with Police Crash Report Data

The North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP), a program within the NC Department of Transportation, has the stated mission of “zero deaths on North Carolina roadways.” As part of this mission, the GHSP funded the Carolina Center for Health Informatics to link health outcome data with police crash report data to improve motor vehicle crash injury surveillance in the state.

North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System (NC-CISS)

CCHI has partnered with the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch of the NC Division of Public Health, the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, and the UNC Highway Safety Research Center on the development of the North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System. The project is funded through a federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Project Team are building on prior strategic planning activities and an existing network of motor vehicle crash injury stakeholders to successfully link crash data with emergency department visit and death certificate data.

For information on potential data linkage sources, review our list of data sources for motor vehicle crash injury research in North Carolina.

Reports

• Descriptive Overview of Linked 2018 Crash and Emergency Department Visit Data (February 2021)
• NC-CISS Data Linkage Indicator Report (November 2020)
• Descriptive Overview of Linked 2018 Crash and Death Certificate Data
• Linkage of NC Trauma Registry and NC Crash datasets
• North Carolina Linkage Study for Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Pedestrians, Bicyclists, and Motorcyclists: Description of Key Linkage Variables
• Motor Vehicle Crash Injury Data Linkage Project Stakeholder Meeting & Feedback Summary
• North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System Year 1 Final Report (Updated 10/27/2020)
• North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System Year 1 Summary Handout (Updated 10/27/2020)
• Motor Vehicle Crash and Health Outcome Data Integration Recommendations for North Carolina
• Data Documentation for Linking Crash and Health Data in North Carolina
• North Carolina Linkage Study for Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Pedestrians and Bicyclists: Police Crash Report Data & NC DETECT Emergency Department Visit Data (August 2019)
• North Carolina Linkage Study for Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Pedestrians and Bicyclists (1.7.2019)
• Brief Report: A Demonstration Project Examining Linked EMS-Crash Report Data For Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Pedestrians & Bicyclists
• Evaluation of Pedestrian/Bicycle Crash Injury Case Definitions for Use with NC DETECT
• North Carolina Motor Vehicle Crash Injury Surveillance: Pedestrians; Summary Data Based on a Pilot Study Linking 2017 Crash and Hospital Encounter Datasets
• North Carolina Motor Vehicle Crash Injury Surveillance: Bicyclists; Summary Data Based on a Pilot Study Linking 2017 Crash and Hospital Encounter Datasets

Fact Sheets

• North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System (NC-CISS): Using linked data to understand the true impact of motor vehicle crashes
• Linking 2018 Crash Reports with Death Certificates in North Carolina: Overall Results and Miscoded Crash Fatalities
• EMS Response to Motor Vehicle Crashes in North Carolina
• Fractures in Pedestrian and Bicyclist Motor Vehicle Crashes
• Hospital Usage Following Pedestrian Crashes
• Law Enforcement-Based Injury Severity Rating for Injured Pedestrians
• Pedestrian Fatalities among Veterans in North Carolina
• Pedestrian Injuries by Light Condition & Time of Day

Presentations

• Data Linkage/Integration 101 (UNC Highway Safety Research Center, August 2021)
• Crash and Health Outcome Data Linkage: Project Updates (TRCC February 2021)
• This 40-minute webinar from February 2021 shares tips on using emergency department and EMS data from NC DETECT for motor vehicle crash injury surveillance and also provides a brief overview of the North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System (NC-CISS). Note: The NC-CISS portion of this webinar was supported supported by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) under award number CE16-1602. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.
• Building an Integrated Crash Surveillance System: A North Carolina Case Study
• Year 1 Review of the North Carolina Crash Injury Surveillance System Project
• Linking Emergency Department (ED) and Motor Vehicle Crash (MVC) Data for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Injury: Elucidating Health Outcomes (CSTE, September 2020)
• NC MVC Linkage Projects (TRF, August 2020)
• The epidemiology of police reported pedestrian injuries treated in North Carolina emergency departments: A focus on health disparities and serious injuries (SAVIR, April 2020)
• Health and Transportation Data Linkage in North Carolina
• North Carolina Data Integration for Motor Vehicle Crash Injury Research: The Long Road Ahead (Poster)

Additional Transportation-Related Resources

• NC Vision Zero provides resources, data, and visualizations for the general public directed at reducing traffic-related fatalities to zero.