The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has launched a new data-driven initiative aimed at improving road safety by identifying accident hotspots and analyzing the underlying causes.

The Road Accident Database and Analysis (DARC) application, developed in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is a key component of the Dhaka Road Safety Project (DRSP).

The app aims to consolidate road accident data, filling long-standing reporting gaps and helping identify accident-prone areas for targeted safety measures.

“The DARC application enables detailed reporting in real time, giving us a much clearer picture of accident patterns,” said Mahmudul Hasan, a member of the JICA expert team under the DRSP.

This capability makes it possible to design more effective solutions to reduce accidents.

The app’s simplified data fields allow traffic officers to now enter crash data on the spot, minimizing the delays and inaccuracies that often plague manual reporting.

Historically, accident reports in Dhaka were recorded manually by the police’s crime branch, although traffic officers are usually the first on the scene.

The process has traditionally focused only on fatal accidents, often omitting non-fatal incidents and those where deaths occur later in hospitals. These limitations have led to data inconsistencies between government departments and NGOs, hindering progress in road safety.

Inspired by the World Bank’s open source DRIVER application, DARC consolidates essential accident information (location, date, time, weather, accident type and potential contributing factors) into a simplified format accessible via a smartphone.

This move from 67 data fields to just eight main fields significantly reduces the administrative burden on agents while minimizing human error.

Additionally, each data entry is verified by a supervisory officer before being integrated into the central database, ensuring greater data accuracy.

Tetsushi Irie, Road Safety Planning Specialist at JICA, said: “This tool will provide a comprehensive real-time crash data set, helping to identify high-risk areas, or “black spots”, and to analyze underlying factors such as weather, visibility or driver behavior.

He said DARC should streamline the flow of data, making road safety planning and response more responsive and effective.

Ahead of the app’s deployment, DMP trained approximately 850 officers in May, covering traffic management principles, data collection techniques and accident reporting through the app.

In June, the app was launched on a trial basis in eight traffic divisions, allowing officers to report and analyze incidents in real time. This pilot phase has already shown promising results in terms of usability and data quality.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Khondoker Nazmul Hasan said, “Through this app, we can now analyze the main causes of accidents and identify the places where they occur most frequently. Once fully operational, we intend to use this information to introduce preventative measures. which will transform our approach to road safety,” added.

The DMP initiative encountered some challenges, including staff transfers and political changes, which briefly slowed the project’s momentum.

However, Nazmul Hasan said additional training would soon be provided to newly appointed officers to ensure that all traffic personnel are equipped to use the app effectively.

“The more precise data we collect, the better we can tailor our responses. This initiative is expected to play a key role in reducing accidents and improving road safety in Dhaka,” he added.

Dr Kazi Md Shifun Newaz of the BUET Accident Research Institute said police officers already have access to an accident reporting form to document accidents, but have not always used it consistently.

“With the new DARC application, if traffic officers take responsibility for accurately filling in the mandatory fields and the data is properly verified, it could create a very valuable database,” said Dr Newaz.

He hailed DARC as an important first step in Dhaka, but stressed the need to expand the system nationally.

“While this is a positive start as a pilot project in the capital, establishing a unified national platform would be essential to significantly reduce road accidents across the country,” he said. -he added.