Crash Data Improvement Program (CDIP) Brochure

FHWA Safety Program

FHWA Office of Safety logo: Safe Roads for a Safer Future - Investment in roadway safety saves lives

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U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration

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Why Improving Your Crash Data Is Important

  • Improves problem identification and evaluation of countermeasures.
  • Provides a data driven basis for establishing safety policies.
  • Improves a State's ability to make decisions regarding the best safety countermeasures to apply to problems.
  • Provides a basis for the justification of highway safety projects.

What is the CDIP Program?

The CDIP provides States with a means to measure the quality of the information within their crash database – performance measures and metrics that States can use to determine where their crash data stands in terms of:

FHWA can assist you in improving your State data process and systems through your State's participation in the Crash Data Improvement Program (CDIP).
  • Timeliness
  • Accuracy
  • Completeness
  • Consistency
  • Integration
  • Accessibility

The CDIP also gives States measures to assess deficiencies in each step of the crash data production process:

  • Crash data collection.
  • Crash data reporting.
  • Crash data processing.

CDIP Guide

FHWA developed the CDIP Guide to help States understand and appreciate the importance of good crash data. It is based on recognized noteworthy practices for assessing the quality of information in a State's crash database and addresses the following questions:

  • What is data quality and why is it important?
  • What are the quality characteristics (definitions)?
  • What are quality metrics?
    • How are they calculated?
    • What are they measuring?
  • What is the sensitivity of various metrics?
  • How can quality characteristic benchmarks be established?

The Guide also includes examples of management reports that assess quality measures.

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/cdip/

CDIP Workshop

A one-day CDIP workshop is offered as part of the overall program. The workshop helps attendees understand the importance of data quality and how to make improvements to the State crash database. The target audiences for the workshop are:

  • State crash database administrators and managers.
  • State Traffic Records Coordinating Committee members.
  • State Highway Safety Office personnel.
  • State DOT safety personnel.
  • Local traffic safety personnel.
  • Federal personnel (NHTSA, FMCSA and FHWA).
  • Metropolitan planning organizations.
  • City/county engineers.
  • Local law enforcement personnel.
  • Other State and local traffic safety professionals.

CDIP Technical Assistance

The CDIP provides direct technical assistance to a State's crash database administrator or manager. A CDIP Technical Assistance Team (TAT) meets with the crash database administrator and staff to review current State practices and procedures for assessing crash data quality. Based on the TAT's findings, a recommendations report is issued to the State.

CDIP Follow-up Consultation Services

The CDIP TAT will continue to provide consultation to the State regarding the recommendations and how to implement them.

CDIP Financial Assistance

States that participate in the CDIP are eligible to receive funding from the FHWA of up to $50,000. This funding assists the State in developing and/or implementing one or more of the recommendations generated in the CDIP report. These funds require a State match of 20 percent.

For More Information:

Visit http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/cdip/



If you have further questions or comments about the CDIP, please contact:

Robert Pollack
FHWA Safety Data Manager
Office of Safety
robert.pollack@dot.gov
202-366-5019

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Program Contact

Robert Pollack

202-366-5019