Crash Facts

Data
Crash Data Analysis

Data

Fatality Analysis Reporting System
FARS is a Web-based encyclopedia that allows for retrieval of fatal crash data and is housed on the NHTSA Website.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis. State (Level) Traffic Safety Information.

Crash Data Analysis

American National Standard, Manual on Classification of Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents, Seventh Edition (ANSI D16.1-2007). National Safety Council, Itasca, IL.
Crash Cost Estimates by Maximum Police-Reported Injury Severity within Selected Crash Geometries, FHWA-HRT-05-051, October 2005. [HTML, PDF 1.16 MB]
Regional Crash Database Supports Safety Planning and Drives State Crash Data Improvement, Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. [PDF 690 KB]

The HRPCD, located in southeastern Virginia, developed a regional crash database to improve regional safety analysis for long- and short-range planning and would improve analytic capacity at the regional level.
Crash Rates at Intersections, Kentucky Transportation Center in Cooperation with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Federal Highway Administration, Research Report KTC-03-21/SPR258-03-2I, August 2003. [PDF 222 KB]
HSIS Summary Reports: The Association of Median Width and Highway Accident Rate, FHWA-RD-93-046, August 1993.
Statistical Models of At-Grade Intersection Accidents—Addendum, FHWA-RD-00-094, March 2000. [PDF 343 KB]

In conventional traffic safety evaluations, the outcome measure is typically the frequency of police-reported crashes, often with separate estimates for different severity levels. However, some treatments may decrease some crash types but increase others. If these crash types are characterized by different average injury severities, then comparing crash frequencies will not provide the user with an accurate picture of treatment effectiveness. Such a scenario led to development of the crash cost estimates by crash geometry described in this report. An example of this scenario can be found in an evaluation of red-light camera (RLC) programs in seven jurisdictions nationwide funded by the FHWA Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office and the Office of Safety Research and Development. RLC programs can be expected to decrease angle-type crashes, but to increase rear end crashes. The former is usually more severe than the latter. For that reason, the study not only examined crash frequency by type, but also included crash severity in the analysis by converting each crash to an economic cost, based on unit costs by police-reported crash severity.

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