Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES)

Explore this section to learn about Ohio’s CODES project, a collaborative effort of statewide agencies to link data from traffic crash reports with medical and financial outcome data.

CODES Background

With support from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), CIRP and the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS), along with the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) and the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), have established the Ohio Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) project. Initiated by NHTSA in 1992, CODES seeks to assess the medical and financial outcomes of motor vehicle crashes by linking data from traffic crash reports with various sources of injury data, including emergency medical service (EMS) runs, hospital inpatient and emergency department admissions, the trauma registry, the trauma rehabilitation registry, and death records. By linking crash, vehicle, and behavior characteristics to specific medical and financial outcomes, prevention factors can be identified to inform highway safety planning and decision-making.  Since 1992, 30 states, including Ohio, have been funded to develop CODES programs.

The Ohio CODES project represents a collaborative effort among state agencies and private organizations committed to reducing the number of deaths and injuries occurring on Ohio’s roadways. 

For a more detailed description of the Ohio CODES project, including a discussion of data linkage methodology, view this presentation from the 2005 Ohio Lifesavers Conference.

For more information on the Ohio CODES project, please contact:

Lynne Rochette

CODES Data Manager

Lynne.Rochette@nationwidechildrens.org

(614) 355-2786

For additional information on the national CODES initiative and other CODES states, visit the NHTSA CODES website.

Ohio Statistics

According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for Ohioans aged 5 to 34 years and the leading cause of injury death for Ohioans of all ages. On average, more than 1,300 Ohioans lose their lives and more than 130,000 are injured each year in motor vehicle-related crashes (ODPS, 2005 Traffic Crash Facts). 

As a result of motor vehicle crashes in Ohio in 2005 alone:

• Approximately 3.6 people were killed per day, resulting in an average of 1 death every 6.7 hours
• 360 people were injured per day for an average of 1 injury every 4.0 minutes
• 11,051 people sustained incapacitating injuries that prevented them from walking, driving, or continuing their normal activities
• 51 children younger than 14 years were killed and nearly 11,000 were injured

Recent Projects

The Impact of a Standard Enforcement Safety Belt Law on Fatalities and Hospital Charges in Ohio: An Analysis using 2003 Ohio CODES Data

Increasing safety belt use in Ohio would substantially lower deaths, injuries, and medical costs due to motor vehicle crashes in our state. NHTSA estimates that 3-point safety belts are 45-60% effective in preventing fatalities and 50-65% effective in preventing moderate-to-critical injuries in frontal collisions. According to a 1995 NHTSA study, states with standard (or primary) enforcement safety belt laws achieved significantly higher belt use than did those with only secondary enforcement laws. In 2006, Ohio’s observed safety belt usage rate was 82%. Based on the experiences of other states, it is estimated that by upgrading Ohio’s safety belt law to standard enforcement in 2007, the safety belt use rate in Ohio would increase 10 percentage points, from 82% to 92%. Using this estimation, the Ohio CODES program conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis to determine the effect that enactment of a standard enforcement safety belt law in Ohio would have on hospital charges and direct medical costs due to motor vehicle crashes in Ohio, focusing on the impact to the state’s Medicaid system. Due to limitations in the available data sets, our projections can be considered underestimates.