Millions of cars on the road today have Event Data Recorders (EDRs). A small percentage of cars currently have EDR data downloaded, typically hours or days after a motor vehicle crash (MVC). However, real time use of EDR data at the crash scene has the potential to save lives by providing additional quantitative information to emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in order to enhance the decisions they make on how and where to transport seriously injured persons (scene triage).

This paper presents the results of a population-based statewide study of all individuals involved in a specific type of fatal level crash for an entire year. (This paper reports on a subset of crashes from a statewide study of all fatal crashes for one year.) Based on the data collected for each victim of the crash, triage criteria were recorded and then compared to the victim’s actual type of transport, (ground ambulance vs. air medical), injury severity, outcome, and hospital type (e.g., community hospital or trauma center).

The triage criteria collected for these crashes, including “mechanism of injury” criteria, (e.g., speed of crash), were then compared to data possible to collect from EDRs to determine how often EDR data could potentially be used to complement and potentially enhance triage decision making. A key decision that must be made at the scene of a serious crash is whether or not the severity of the crash or injuries would warrant a request for air medical transport to a trauma center (instead of ground ambulance transport to a community hospital). For the study group 16% were transported to a trauma center by ground, 11% by air.

From the study results, the paper discusses how the statewide use of quantitative real time EDR data could potentially enhance current triage guidelines.