Presentation of the Ifsttar in-Depth Accident Study. Data from traffic accidents are routinely gathered by police for use in drawing up national road safety statistics. The objective of the Ifsttar in-Depth Accident Study is not to determine responsibility, but rather to answer the question: How did the accident happen? The goal, over time, is to learn useful lessons in order to set up preventive actions and to avoid similar accidents. The specialists in charge of the IDAS study accidents as research subjects: using the data gathered, they reconstruct the history of the accident, establish a precise description of the circumstances that triggered it and formulate a detailed chain of causes and effects that occur as it happens. Users, vehicles, infrastructures: everything is taken into account in the investigation. These very fine analyses, which entail going to the heart of the question, are used to identify the factors which, if controlled, can lead to the development and implementation of preventive actions. More than a coded database, Ifsttar in-Depth Accident Study is akin to "an accident cases library".
