Blackfeet Automated Accident Reporting System

To improve accident reporting through the application of advanced technology to increase the accuracy and completeness of accident reporting and to reduce the time necessary.

This project will provide a system to improve the current system of accident reporting by addressing several issues; the inaccuracy of data, the incompleteness of the data and the potential errors associated with transcribing and communicating the data. The basis of the improvement is the use of mobile computing systems to collect the data at the accident scene and using Global Positioning System (GPS) units to identify the accident locations with greater precision than can be done manually. The advantages of the improvement will be superior accident report data and improved accuracy in the resulting reports. There are two major pieces to the system: the mobile data collection portion and the fixed data upload and database interface portion. The initial platform for the mobile product will be PocketPC based Personal Data Assistants (PDA’s) coupled with GPS units. However, the goal is to have software products that can operate on a wide-variety of PDA or laptop computing systems. The fixed product will be designed to operate on current computing systems as necessary, including Microsoft Windows and/or Unix/Linux platforms. It will be designed to interoperate with the current database mechanisms supported by local and State of Montana agencies for accident reporting needed, but limited by the time constraints of the project. The mobile platform software will provide a user interface that mimics the current paper reporting system to as great a degree as possible to maximize user acceptance and to minimize the likelihood of errors. The system will be designed to detect and correct errors, or to require that correct data be entered and to make the process easier and faster. The interface with the data upload software will provide the user with an opportunity to perform validity checking on the report data. As necessary the software will be interconnected with other applications on the mobile platform.