Dubious accident statistics on Gardai website

Alun

I've been following the Fatal Road Collision Statistics on http://www.garda.ie/angarda/statistics98/nroadstats.html recently by copying the figures into an Excel spreadsheet. Once a month, or so, I visit the site and copy the latest months figures in, and of course, in my spreadsheet I have a running total for the year.

Every now and then I notice a discrepancy between the total in my spreadsheet and the total on the website. Sometimes the figures for a month in the past have risen by one, which is understandable I suppose since someone who was injured in an accident some months ago could have died from their injuries in hospital in the meantime. Sometimes, however, the figure for a previous month mysteriously decreases by 1! It happens quite a lot, and I'm at a loss to explain what the reason can be.

Any ideas?

BrianD3

Could be due to suicides. A car crashes into a tree at 100 mph, driver dies. Cops record it as an RTA fatality but later on it's discovered that it was a deliberate act so maybe gets removed from the stats.

BrianD3

Turner

Ya i presume until the completion of an inquest into a persons death you wont find out how they died or whether they were dead or not when the car crashed.

unkel

BrianD3 wrote:

Could be due to suicides. A car crashes into a tree at 100 mph, driver dies. Cops record it as an RTA fatality but later on it's discovered that it was a deliberate act so maybe gets removed from the stats.

BrianD3

Quite likely. The number of fatal one-vehicle accidents (with only one occupant of the vehicle) in this country is extremely high

Atomic Pineapple

Didn't some research suggest awhile ago that anything up to 60% of car crashes are suicide attempts?

Dont think it was published much but i remember reading that somewhere during the year.

MrPudding

Does suicide by car get listed as such in Ireland? Apparently in the UK it does not happen. No matter what evidence there is to show it was suicide it does not get officially listed as such. A teacher told me that a number of years ago. Will try to confirm.

MrP

is_that_so

BrianD3 wrote:

Could be due to suicides. A car crashes into a tree at 100 mph, driver dies. Cops record it as an RTA fatality but later on it's discovered that it was a deliberate act so maybe gets removed from the stats.

BrianD3

There is also the possibility of drink driving related fatalities. Do they do an autopsy on these single RTAs and check their alcohol levels? Having been on narrow country lanes can see how some of these accidents occur. How does one clearly establish that someone deliberately drove into a tree or a ditch ?

ubu

why would drink driving related fatalities be removed from the stats?

Victor

The figures on the website are provisional and while updated daily, I don't think there is any attempt to massage the figures.

They are all listed as Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs), even if it's suicide or murder. It might be more correct to refer to them as Road TRaffic Incidents, but that doesn't imply injury / damage.

BrianD3

What happens if someone is found dead in their car after a single vehicle crash and it's later determined that they were dead from a heart attack before the actual impact. Does this get included in the road fatality stats or the heart attack stats or both.

BrianD3

vector

BrianD3 wrote:

What happens if someone is found dead in their car after a single vehicle crash and it's later determined that they were dead from a heart attack before the actual impact. Does this get included in the road fatality stats or the heart attack stats or both.

BrianD3

That cold be on a TV program like CSI, a car would hit another and the hit driver would be found dead. But Horatio would show that that the hit driver was already dead and so the driver only had to face charges of dangerous driving and not murder.

vector

ubu wrote:

why would drink driving related fatalities be removed from the stats?

to lower the stats... to make the relevant minister/garda commissioner etc look better for political reasons

massaging the figures