Michigan Department Of Trasnportation’s Redesigned Database Improves Traffic Safety
The state of Michigan has moved its traffic accident data from an outdated mainframe from the 1970s to an environment based on Sybase’s PowerBuilder and Oracle technology. Moving the crash database means that law enforcement, transportation, and state department officials no longer have to endure a largely manual process of retrieving accident data from mainframe magnetic tapes and storage cartridges.
The Michigan State Police teamed up with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Michigan Department of State for the Crash Process Redesign project, which has given the Crash database a browser-based interface.
With the new supporting environment for Crash, users will be able to access traffic accident data for legal purposes or safety research within 60 days, a huge upgrade for a process in which data sometimes took two years to make its way through the system.
In addition to reducing data errors, the new setup has helped to lower processing and hardware costs.
The Imlay City Police Department has used the new database to find information necessary for applying for road-improvement grants. “Prior to having this in place, I would have had to contact the local county road commissioner and the Michigan State Police to get the information,” says Imlay City Police Chief Arlan Winslow.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Computerworld (06/07/04) P. 33; Vijayan, Jaikumar .