REPRODUCIBILITY OF PREVENTABLE DEATH JUDGMENTS AND PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION IN 60 CONSECUTIVE ROAD TRAUMA FATALITIES IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

Background: Since 1992, the Consultative Committee on Road Traffic Fat alities in Victoria has identified problems in the management of traff ic fatalities. Its two evaluative committees have additionally assesse d the potential preventability of death. Previous studies have shown o nly poor to fair reproducibility of death judgments. Methods: Problems in the management of 60 consecutive road traffic fatalities and the p otential preventability of death were independently evaluated by the t wo committees. Inter-rater and inter-committee concordance were analyz ed using the kappa statistic. Results: Reproducibility was high. Inter -committee agreement on nonpreventable, potentially preventable, and p reventable death judgments was high (kappa = 0.73, 95% confidence inte rval = 0.57-0.89). Agreement within the two evaluative committees was also high (average weighted kappa = 0.73 and 0.74). There was good agr eement between committees on problems identified, including those cont ributing to death. Conclusion: The high kappa concordance on preventab le death judgments and the agreement on problem identification support s the reproducibility of the methodology used.