Awhile ago I paid £29.50 for the last five years of collision records from Hampshire Constabulary as a result of being shocked by the amount of accidents I am seeing (south Hampshire) after moving here from Kent 5 years ago ( I am 52 years old). On looking at one particular accident that I witnessed (and photographed) I was surprised to see that Hampshire Constabulary had marked it down as SLIGHT. Surprised because it was a head on collision where one of the drivers was cut out of the vehicle and flown by helicopter to the hospital.

When I phoned H.C. and questioned this they said that it was marked down as per the injuries incurred by the drivers/passengers. I found this documentation irresponsible and misleading as this was an extremeley serious accident that is now lost as a statistical record. A sinic would say that Hampshire Constabulary are deliberatley doing this to make their records appear less severe. Would it not be a good idea to investigate Hampshire Constabulary to see what appears to be a damping down of their records.

Posted by anonymous user over 2 years ago
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Comment: Re: Hampshire Police: Recording Accidents

Actually, from what you have said, they are recording the accident correctly based on Home Office requirements. For at least the last 10 years, the Home Office have required statistics only on the following types of RTC/RTA:

Non-injury (or damage only)
Slight Injury
Serious Injury
Fatal

Other statistics are also recorded with regards to the cause/contributory factors (e.g. speed, weather, driver error, obstruction), but these don't change the overall classification.

It may be that it looked like Armageddon had occurred outside your house, but, if the most serious injury obtained by any of the parties involved was whiplash, or bruising, then this would be "slight injury." The state of the vehicles afterwards, or the use of cutting equipment or the air ambulance does not change the fact that only "slight injury" was caused.

Posted by rp over 2 years ago

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