The routine linking of collisions to a network would likely allow a more consistent, network-defined basis for classification of which collisions are in scope of STATS19 reporting, according to a new Government publication.

The Department for Transport has published report on work to assess the feasibility of matching STATS19 data to a road network, to improve the validation and utility of official road casualty statistics.

The report, Matching STATS19 collision data to a road network: feasibility, presents a summary of the Department’s work to assess the feasibility of linking (or ‘matching’) road injury collision location data to a road network, specifically the Ordnance Survey National Geographic Database (NGD) RoadLink network.

If successful, matching collision data to a network will help to support improvements to the published statistics, including:

• Improved validation of road-related variables in STATS19
• Scope for publications of additional information related to the roads on which collisions happen
• Sbility to add further derived road-network related variables, such as a better classification of rural roads currently in development

In the longer term, routine linking of collisions to a network might allow a more consistent, network-defined basis for classification of which collisions are in scope of STATS19 reporting.

This report summarises initial work. It is anticipated to develop this further, with a view to including enhanced road-related analysis as part of the publication of 2026 casualty statistics in summer 2027.

STATS19 contains a recorded point location for each reported injury collision and police-recorded road attributes such as road class, road number and speed limit. These attributes can be incomplete or inconsistent. This study explores whether the collision point can be matched to a plausible Ordnance Survey (OS) network road link (without changing the recorded coordinates) so that road information can be validated and, where appropriate, supplemented.

Given the results of this study, the proposed way forward is to incorporate an annual network matching into the road safety statistics publication processes, from 2026 onwards, aligned with production of final annual STATS19 data:A

• AN appropriate version of the network will be chosen (for example, as it exists at a given date, such as end May of the data year)
• During data collection and validation, network-based checks will be used support validation and identify issues to feed back to police force data suppliers
• Final 2026 data would be matched to an agreed road-network for use in statistics published in summer 2027 (subject to any licensing decisions)

The full report can be accessed HERE.

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