SWITRS y2k information from Pd' Programming 

Pd’ Programming, Inc

Technical Note 19971105-1

Important information regarding changes to the SWITRS data you are receiving from the California Highway Patrol

IMPORTANT: Effective with the 3^rd Quarter 1997 data, (the data they are sending to you right now) the California Highway Patrol has changed the format of their SWITRS data. The current format is not year 2000 compatible. To make it compatible, they are adding the century to all of the years given in each accident record. Your next diskette of SWITRS data should indicate this.

DO NOT IMPORT THIS NEW DATA INTO INTERSECTION MAGIC. YOU MUST FIRST CHANGE YOUR CONFIGURATION TO SUPPORT THE NEW SWITRS FORMAT.

Fortunately, Intersection Magic has been year 2000 compatible since its first release in 1987. Once the data is in Intersection Magic, the date contains a century. For that reason, you do not need an update of the Intersection Magic program in order to handle this change in SWITRS.

As a California user, there are three possibilities of how this will affect you:

1. You currently import SWITRS data directly into Intersection Magic. Your import definition file is called SWIT.IMP or SWIT.IML. You will be directly affected by this change.
2. You currently import SWITRS data into a database management program and then export it to Intersection Magic. You will probably need to address the change before importing it into your own database. From there you may or may not have to make changes in Intersection Magic.
3. You currently don't use SWITRS data at all in Intersection Magic. You will not be affected.

For those of you in situation 1, we have enclosed instructions as to how to update your configuration so that it will import SWITRS data correctly. If your are in situation 2 or 3, you probably already have a pretty good idea of your year 2000 compatibility.

To help all of you make this transition smoothly, we have prepared a year 2000 web page. Point your web browser to: http://www.pdmagic.com. From there, follow the links to Intersection Magic / Technical support / Year 2000.

The additional pages enclosed with this letter are printouts of the relevant web pages. It should be sufficient for those people in situation 1. However, we encourage you to visit our web page if you have access to the web, as additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding this tech note.

For SWITRS data format questions, you may also contact:

California Highway Patrol, Support Services Section, Information Services Unit,
P.O. Box 942898, Sacramento, CA 94298-0001 phone: (916) 375-2850

Thanks for using Intersection Magic, we appreciate your business.

Back to year 2000 page