EMBARQ India and JP Research Conduct Road Accident Data Workshop for Gurgaon Police

On 6-7 July 2015, EMBARQ India’s road safety experts organised a workshop for the Gurgaon Police best practices of road accident data collection. The workshop had two objectives. First, documenting and understanding the road accident recording process in the context of Gurgaon; and secondly, evaluating the data for completeness, accuracy and objectivity. The workshop also helped identify the most relevant information for crash investigation and how this information can be recorded accurately within the existing data collection framework. EMBARQ India in association with JP Research Pvt. Ltd. compiled an accident data coding form in order to capture accident data in such a way that it could aid scientific analyses, thereby improving road safety.

This training was attended by 20 Investigation and Zonal Officers of the Gurgaon police force, and help them understand key issues like understanding the variables on the accident data coding form, creating accurate crash scene diagrams, taking effective photographs at the crash scene and filling the data collection forms correctly. An important aspect of the training was to help first-hand reporters of accidents – the on-ground police personnel – on ways to effectively capture all the relevant information in an objective manner, without introducing a subjective bias on the causes. Post the workshop, discussions are being held with the Gurgaon Commissioner of Police on implementing this framework. It has been recognised that improving accident reporting does not require a costly overhaul and this data workshop has been a particularly effective exercise for officers and other police personnel in Gurgaon.