CODES

The Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) evolved from a congressional mandate to report on the benefits of safety belts and motorcycle helmets. The National Highway traffic Safety Administration provides funds for the states of Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin to link statewide crash and injury data. The purpose of the linkage is to find out who's injured in motor vehicle crashes, what types of injuries occur, and how much it costs to treat these injuries over time. Large numbers of computerized state crash and injury records are linked in a phenomenally short amount of time at relatively low cost using probabilistic linkage techniques. So CODES is another name for data linkage.