Highway crashes result in tens of thousands of fatalities, millions of injuries, and billions of dollars in health care costs each year. Efforts to control these huge societal costs need data that contain details on the medical and financial consequences of these crashes.

The Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) project has funded seven states to generate linked statewide data bases to evaluate the benefits of safety belts and motorcycle helmets on injury costs and morbidity outcomes. Using probabilistic linkage techniques, data describing the characteristics of the crash, vehicle, and occupant from the crash report will be linked to medical descriptions of the type of injury, body region injured, severity, dispositions, and total charges from the occupant’s medical records.

The paper will discuss early findings on the usefulness of these linked data for examining highway safety issues as Well as their shortcomings from the standpoint of data quality, completeness, and ability to be linked. Advantages of using statewide, population-based data will also be discussed.