Impact of the 1980-1983 Selected Traffic Enforcement Program On Traffic Accidents in Batavia, Illinois

During the period 1980-1983, the police department of the City of Batavia, Illinois, received a grant to reduce traffic accidents. To analyze whether this program was effective, an interrupted time series design was used. Using yearly statistics from 1972 to 1987, changes in the trend and level of accidents were calculated One explicit control variable, weather, was included. A statistically significant decline in intercept and slope were discovered To confirm the impact, a similar analysis was performed on a nearby community that did not have such a program. Some of the same declines were noted, indicating either some spillover from the Batavia program or the existence of other factors during the same time period that also affected accidents However, the more significant declines in Batavia versus the control community lead to the conclusion that the program was effective. The long-run nature of the decline in accidents seems to be due to the extensive training in accident investigation of the Batavia officers This contributed to suggested and implemented redesign of problem intersections.