Sweden study visit 2020

The visit is the first of two study visits Lithuania will undertake as part of the EU Road Safety Exchange project. The visit included a trip to the St Göran emergency hospital and meetings with the various stakeholders involved in the Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition (STRADA) platform.

During the visit, hosted by experts at the Swedish Transport Agency, the Lithuanian delegation had the possibility to discuss with professionals at the St Göran emergency hospital, the Swedish Police, the municipality of Stockholm, Transport Analysis, the Swedish Transport Administration and Folksam.

The STRADA platform is a national information system containing data on traffic collisions and injuries occurring on Swedish roads. The data in STRADA come from two separate sources: traffic collision reports provided by the police and medical reports provided by hospitals. The police are the main source for recording road deaths in Sweden, but the hospitals complement police data.

The police have a legal obligation to register road collision data in STRADA. Hospitals register data in the system on a voluntary basis, those who do are financially compensated by the Swedish Transport Agency.

Hospital reporting to STRADA has increased gradually, currently encompassing all of the hospitals with emergency rooms for treating road collision injuries. By combining and matching reports from two sources, more detailed information of traffic collisions and their consequences is collected.

Anonymous data from STRADA is used by national, regional and local authorities and by researchers and associations working on traffic safety issues. Around 800 accredited users benefit from the data collected by STRADA to inform policy and action plans, or for research purposes.

Main takeaways

• The Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition (STRADA) platform is a national information system containing data on traffic collisions and injuries occurring on Swedish roads that uses police and hospital data.
• STRADA relies on more than 100 agreements at national, regional, local level concluded over time. Agreements (voluntary and incentivised) rather than legislation helps ensure support and usage of the system.
• Hospitals register data in the system on a voluntary basis, and those who do are financially compensated. Specially trained nurses input data in AIS format into the STRADA database.
• Police have an obligation to input data into STRADA, but they also benefit from the platform, using the data to better plan traffic controls and other road safety actions.
• Most local authorities in Sweden have developed road safety programmes and the country has an urban mobility strategy in place. Thanks to hospital reports of collisions input into STRADA, the Stockholm municipality intervenes in dangerous areas to clean surfaces or take different measures.
• The government agency for transport policy analysis, Transport Analysis uses STRADA data to better inform decision makers and provide policy advice.
• The Swedish Transport Administration makes in-depth investigations, in cooperation with the police, car manufacturers, fire brigade. Investigators gather information on each fatal accident.
• Folksam, uses STRADA data for their analysis of real world crashes. Their studies also look at vehicle crashworthiness and rate vehicles based on risk of crash leading to long term medical impairment.