23 January 2020
Oliver Bruce
[FYI request #11796 email]
Tēnā koe Oliver
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-002943
Thank you for your email of 04 December 2019, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
I am looking for the folowing data:
•
total claims by number
•
total claims by cost ($) to date
•
categorisation of injury (low, medium, high severity)
By month, from September 2018 through October 2019.
For the fol owing categories:
•
e-scooters (including Lime/privately owned)
•
cycling
•
Ski ng/snowboarding
•
Rugby
•
Netball
•
while on public transport
•
pedestrians hit by cars
•
car accidents
Sporting and transport injury data
Please find attached the data we are able to provide you on sporting and transport related injuries. This
data was extracted on 15 January 2020 and may differ if run at a later date. It is provided by month,
from September 2018 to October 2019.
We are not providing you with information on public transport related injuries
The data set available to ACC is reliant on the information provided on the ACC45 injury claim form,
which is completed when a person seeks treatment for their injury. The ACC45 has multiple fields, some
are mandatory to complete, and others are not.
There is a free-text field ‘accident description’ on the form where a person can provide a brief
description of how their accident happened. This field is not mandatory to complete and not every client
does so. When accident descriptions are included on the ACC45 form, there is significant variance in the
nature and quality of the details provided, and the ful circumstances of the injury may stil not be
known. Such inconsistency makes it difficult to search for a particular item or issue with a high degree of
accuracy.
When we searched for various public transport related terms (bus, train or ferry) many claims unrelated
to injuries sustained on public transport were captured. For example, the search would identify claims
where a person was injured on their way to catch a train or by tripping over a toy train set. Therefore, to
determine the number of claims related to injuries sustained while on public transport, we would need
GOV-002943
to undertake a manual search of all the claims identified through the free-text search field search
described above. This would involve reading each injury description of claims identified as having the
words relevant to public transport.
We are declining this part of your request under section 18(f) of the Act, as to determine the relevant
claims would require a substantial amount of manual collation and research.
Notes on our data
The fol owing points should be considered when interpreting the data:
• A new claim is counted in the year it was lodged with ACC. This can be immediately after the injury
occurred, or at any later stage.
• Active claims are claims that generated a payment in the period specified. These claims were not
necessarily lodged, or had the accident occur, in the same period. As these claims can generate
payment across multiple years, they can occur more than once in the data. The count of active
claims includes new claims for which a payment has been made in the period.
• The costs provided are the cost to ACC of treatment, rehabilitation and entitlements, such as
weekly compensation. This excludes the cost of emergency treatment at public hospitals, as
treatment provided by Public Health Acute Services is bulk funded and costs are not al ocated to
individuals claims.
• Cycling accidents include accidents recorded as happening on the road as well as accidents
recorded as being sporting accidents.
• The costs provided are GST exclusive.
• The data was extracted on 15 January 2020 and may differ if rerun at a later date.
ACC takes privacy seriously
ACC does not general y disclose data on claims where the number is fewer than four. Accordingly, in the
data provided we have used <4 where the claim count is between one and three. This limits the
potential for particular individuals or matters specific to certain individuals being identified. This
decision is made under section 9(2)(a) of the Act. In doing so, we have considered the public interest in
making the information available and have determined that it does not outweigh the need to protect
the privacy of these individuals.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can email me at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800
802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sasha Wood
Acting Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
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