Today, computer technology makes it practical to collect, edit, distribute and store data in electronic format with little or no additional manual processing necessary (Kala pp). Integrating data from various agencies is now possible, "including police crash reports, truck inspections, traffic citations, motor vehicle records, emergency medical services (EMS) run reports, emergency and long-term health care records, highway inventories, and traffic volume records" (Kala pp). According to the American National Standard's Manual on Classification of Motor Vehicle Accidents, there are eight definitions: Transport Vehicles and Transport Ways; Land Way, Land Vehicles and Uses; Injuries and Damages; Accidents; Locations;

Road vehicle Accident Types; Location of Road Vehicle Accidents; School Bus (Manual pp). There are 13 classifications: Classification of Persons by Injury Severity; Classification of Road Vehicles by Damage Severity; Accident Classification by Transport Vehicle Type; Accident Classification by Injury Severity; Accident Classification by Damage Severity; Accident Classification by Number of Vehicles; Accident Classification by First Harmful Event; Accident Classification by Location; Motor Vehicle Classification; Automobile Classification by Size; Automobile Classification by Weight; Motorcycle Classification by Type; Truck Classification by Weight (Manual pp).

Under Motor Vehicle Classification, the manual states that the purpose of this classification is to describe the type of motor vehicle involved in a motor vehicle accident (Manual pp). This includes:

Automobile - such as van or other automobile

Utility Vehicle - such as public works vehicles, etc.

Bus - which can include van, and other bus

Motorcycle - including large motorcycles, mopeds, etc.

Truck Tractor - which might include military and commercial vehicles

Truck - including single unit, van, other single unit, truck and truck combinations

Other motor vehicles - including vehicles that do not fall into above categories

Manual pp).

It is important that the company incident report form be carefully reconstructed so that supervisors completing it are able to simply enter data into a system that automatically maintains current statistics (Eckhardt pp). The incident report form are usually designed in such a way that the supervisor is able to simply check the appropriate boxes (Eckhardt pp). The system will then assign classifications to the case as necessary: "OSHA recordable; requires OSHA notification; reportable to the insurance company; first-aid;...

The standard requires the following data elements to be collected: Identification of the injured/ill person, such as name, title, level of experience in the worker's current occupation, department location and assignment; Injury/illness details, such as information considered tentative, subject to availability of information and subsequent verification or revision based on later developments or medical reports; Identification of the injury-producing object or substance; Incident details, such as location and time of incident, activity of the injured/ill at the time of the incident, sequence of events leading to incident, and environmental factors that contributed to or had a part in the occurrence of the event; Identification of the secondary injury-producing object or substance (Eckhardt pp).
Efficient fleet management includes vehicle procurement, development and deployment of maintenance management information systems, preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, regular lubrication, and proper management of cooling, diesel fuel, transmission oil, and air cleaner and intake systems (Fleet1 pp).

Works Cited

Della-Giustina, Daniel. Motor Fleet Safety and Security Management. Retrieved September 26, 2005 at http://print.google.com/print?id=lEH4LetE5p8C&lpg=PA1&pg=PA2&sig=u7a-j_jQdGzTYW59S8iQKg9CQkc

Eckhardt, Bob. (1999 May 01). Measuring incidents under new ANSI standard.

Concrete Products. Retrieved September 26, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Fleet1 management & maintenance. (1996 April 15). Public Works. Retrieved September

26 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Fleet Safety at Abbott. U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health

Administration. Retrieved September 26, 2005 at http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/alliances/abbott/fleet_safety.html

The Investigation. Safety Line Institute. Retrieved September 26, 2005 at http://www.safetyline.wa.gov.au/institute/level1/course11/lecture32/l32_03.asp

Kalla, Hari. (2003 January 01). Data is key to understanding and improving safety: road safety audits, more efficient data collection, and a new software tool promise to make our highways safer. Public Roads. Retrieved September 26, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Manual on Classification of Motor Vehicle Accidents. American National Standard.

Retrieved September 26, 2005 at http://www.atsip.org/images/uploads/d16.pdf