To gain a more complete understanding of motor vehicle injuries and fatalities at the population level, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) partnered with members of the Colorado State Trauma Registry, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Colorado Department of Revenue (CDOR), the State of Colorado Traffic Records Advisory Committee (STRAC), and the Colorado Hospital Association to link existing state health and crash report data. The project combined Colorado traffic crash data and health data (emergency department, hospital discharge, death, and trauma registry) to identify protective factors and risk factors associated with fatal and non-fatal injuries due to motor vehicle crashes. This project resulted in a series of data briefs, each with a focus on a particular risk, protective factor, and/or a health outcome.
This brief describes injury severity among persons injured in crashes and related crash characteristics, based on linked trauma registry and crash data, using a standard clinical measure of injury severity from the Colorado Trauma Registry.