Identification of hazardous road locations using ambulance data
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55329/mmey4122Keywords:
ambulances, black spot, emergency medical services, hazardous road location, underreportingAbstract
Background: Police underreporting of traffic crashes is a substantial challenge in Denmark, as in many other countries. Alternative data sources are highly warranted for site-specific road traffic safety work. This study aimed to test the potential benefits and drawbacks of a merger of ambulance data, including crash coordinates, and hospital patient data.
Methods: We tested a definition of a traffic crash based on a merger of hospital patient data and ambulance data, including prehospital medical records information and ambulance coordinates in Aalborg Municipality in the North Denmark Region of Denmark from 2016 to 2019 and presented a method of identification of hazardous intersections, road sections and local traffic areas. We compared selected police data characteristics for the same area and period.
Results: Compared to police data in the same study period, we found 3.2 times as many unique crash sites through the use of combined hospital patient and ambulance data. We showed that as many as 47% of the crash sites found in the ambulance records were located outside the network of major roads, whereas 16% were located at intersections of major roads and 38% on sections of major roads. We found a certain imprecision in the identification of crash locations because some crash coordinates were physical addresses of buildings only close to the crash sites. Furthermore, we noted that the data privacy of patient data is an issue.
Conclusions: Ambulance data have clear-cut potential in site-specific road traffic safety work. However, data quality assurance is necessary prior to the application of the data for black spot identification. As such, more precise coordinates are needed, as well as further methodological development and an anonymisation procedure legally approved by the authorities to make data available for traffic safety work operations.
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Author Biographies
Anne Vingaard Olesen, Aalborg University, Denmark
Anne Vingaard Olesen has a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics from Aarhus University. She was employed at the Traffic Research Group at Aalborg University from 2012 to 2023, first as an assistant professor and then as an associate professor. Her research has focused on road safety—including the safety of vulnerable road users. Methodologically, her interest has been register research.
CRediT contribution: Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing—original draft.
Tim Alex Lindskou, Aalborg University, Denmark | Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark
Tim Alex Lindskou has a PhD in prehospital and emergency research from Aalborg University. His area of research includes prehospital medical records data and patient pathways. Tim is currently a senior researcher at Aalborg University Hospital and an associate professor at Aalborg University.
CRediT contribution: Methodology, Writing—review & editing.
Rasmus Øhlenschlæger, Aalborg University, Denmark
Rasmus Øhlenschlæger holds an MSc in transport engineering and is affiliated with the Traffic Research Group at Aalborg University as a student lecturer. He specialises in conducting analyses with the aim of increasing road safety.
CRediT contribution: Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing—review & editing.
Torben Anders Kløjgaard, Aalborg University, Denmark | Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark
Torben Anders Kløjgaard has a MSc in statistics. His area of research includes prehospital medical records data and developing patient pathways.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing—review & editing.
Anders Brogaard Tallaksen, Aalborg University, Denmark | Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark
Anders Brogaard Tallaksen holds an MSc in transport engineering and was affiliated with the Traffic Research Group at Aalborg University as an assistant during his studies until graduating in 2023. His master’s thesis investigated the characteristics of single vulnerable road user accidents. He is interested in the potential of technology to improve traffic safety.
CRediT contribution: Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing—review & editing.
Jens Lauritsen, Odense University Hospital, Denmark | University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Jens Lauritsen is a public health specialist with MD and PhD degrees. He has worked with injury surveillance and epidemiology since 1982. He is particularly interested in acute injury based on hospital A&E data collection and the use of data for preventive planning, including severity grading at the national level to secure vulnerable user interventions.
CRediT contribution: Data curation, Methodology, Writing—review & editing.
Erika Frischknecht Christensen, Aalborg University, Denmark | Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark | North Denmark Region, Denmark
Erika Frischknecht Christensen, MD, specialised in anaesthesiology and critical care. Since 2015, he has served as a clinical professor at Aalborg University and the head of the Centre for Prehospital and Emergency Research. Her major field of interest and research is prehospital, emergency and trauma care. She has authored over 165 scientific publications in addition to book chapters and conference abstracts and posters.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing—review & editing.
Harry Lahrmann, Aalborg University, Denmark
Harry Lahrmann graduated from the Technical University of Denmark but has been affiliated with Aalborg University since 1987, first as an assistant professor and then as an associate professor. He is also the founder of the Traffic Research Group. His research areas are transport planning and traffic engineering, with a focus on traffic safety and intelligent transport systems. Over the years, he has authored over 200 scientific conference papers, articles and books within these areas with his colleagues.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing—review & editing.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Anne Vingaard Olesen, Tim Alex Lindskou, Rasmus Øhlenschlæger, Torben Anders Kløjgaard, Anders Brogaard Tallaksen, Jens Lauritsen, Erika Frischknecht Christensen, Harry Lahrmann
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Funding data
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Danish Foundation TrygFonden
Grant numbers 115826
