Identification of Accident Location by Use of GPS and Possibilities of its Application

The accurate location of the accident spot is the key for the correct evaluation of a link between road and accident process and for the right choice of improvement measures.Use of GPS offers this desirable level of exactitude and some countries already introduced this tool in a limited scope. The use of GPS was introduced in the Czech Republic as the standard procedure of the accident registration system since July 1, 2006. As the follow-up the on-line system of visualization of accidents, including all registered parameters for each accidents, was opened for the internal use of traffic police in 2007. In the next phase the system was adapted for wider use of road safety professionals and for open access of wide public. The publicly accessible web site was opened since December 1, 2008 and evoked lively interest of hundred thousands accesses during the first days. The system enables to access each accident described by parameters investigated by police (excluding personal data) and to make own individual selections and summaries according these parameters. The implementation was based on the results of the pilot project undertaken jointly by Traffic Police and Transport Research Centre. This cooperation, including further applications of the GPS use, demonstrates the efficient way of cooperation between traffic police and road safety research and its contribution i