Comparison of highway crash reporting in Pakistan with the World Health Organisation injury surveillance guideline

Objectives To compare the crash reporting system of National Highways & Motorways Police (NH&MP), Pakistan with the WHO injury surveillance guidelines. Methods Based on information collected from field observations, key informant interviews, and review of official documents, this note firstly describes reporting system according to the components of a surveillance system. Then the reporting is compared with WHO criteria for designing and building an injury surveillance system and attributes of such system. Results After a crash, patrol officer communicates the information to the higher police authorities by wireless, fax, and on paper in the first 24 h. Microcomputer Accident Analysis Package (MAAP) Performa filed by the officers are collected at a central location in the following 4 days, and reports are published biannually. Notable deficiencies in the reporting were: non identification of stakeholders for data utilisation and limited prospects of data recording process modification and it's monitoring. Moreover, crash and injury definitions do not conform to international standards practiced elsewhere. Conclusions NH&MP crash reporting needs to be simplified and standardised, and steps should be taken to improve its utilisation for prevention purposes.