Use of Coroner's reports for surveillance of accidental death

The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of using Coroner's reports on accidental deaths as the basis of a surveillance system. The Coroner's reports of childhood accidental deaths in Northern Ireland over a five-year period (224 deaths) were reviewed. Outcome measures included the delay between time of death and registration of death and the usefulness of the report in assessing the preventability of the accident. The timing of Coroner's reports could facilitate monitoring of trends for particular categories of accident and allow information in the reports to be used as a basis for preventive programmes. At present, however, the reports which the Coroner uses to inform the Registrar-General of his or her findings are not of a standard format, and in many cases do not report enough detail to allow an analysis of the circumstances of the accidents which could be used to establish opportunities for prevention.