CHOP and NJ Highway Traffic Safety Unveil New Traffic Safety Website

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and New Jersey’s Highway Traffic Safety Division launch an innovative website to enhance traffic safety and public health with real-time data access.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety (HTS) are excited to announce the launch of a groundbreaking website, njsho.chop.edu. This new platform features an interactive data dashboard designed to enhance traffic safety by providing comprehensive, real-time data visualization and tracking across New Jersey.

Developed by the NJ Safety and Health Outcomes (NJ-SHO) Center for Integrated Data, the website aims to transform how traffic data is collected, analyzed, and utilized for public safety. The data dashboard not only grants access to previously unavailable information but also supports the development and evaluation of local and statewide initiatives aimed at reducing traffic-related injuries and fatalities.

“Every community has unique transportation safety concerns,” said Allison E. Curry, PhD, the principal investigator of the NJ-SHO Center for Integrated Data and a senior scientist at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP. “We hope that regional, local, and community partners will use our dashboard to implement safety efforts that ultimately move the needle on reducing crashes.”

For over a decade, researchers at CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) have been utilizing the NJ-SHO Data Warehouse, which now contains over 124 million records spanning 17 years and covering 24 million individuals. This extensive data collection has already facilitated numerous studies on traffic safety and health outcomes, contributing significantly to the field.

The launch of this website, supported by over $2.5 million in funding from HTS, marks a crucial step forward in making data-driven decisions to enhance road safety in New Jersey. The website not only serves as a resource for evidence-based injury prevention and transportation equity but also for engaging stakeholders throughout the state in meaningful safety initiatives.

This initiative is supported by partnerships with several New Jersey agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the Motor Vehicle Commission, the Department of Health, and the Office of Information Technology, underscoring a collaborative approach to improving traffic safety and public health outcomes.