As part of the March 7, 1995 Settlement Agreement between General Motors and the U.S. Department of Transportation, General Motors sponsored analyses of various field collision data files maintained by Federal and State highway safety organizations. These analyses were performed to:​ 1) evaluate possible causes and effects of vehicle fire events;​ 2) assess the adequacy of existing databases for studying these events;​ and 3) recommend possible enhancements to these data files to assist safety researchers in studies of motor vehicle fires.

Results of this GM-sponsored research indicate that existing data sources contain insufficient information to enable researchers to satisfactorily understand the causes of vehicle fires. This paper describes some major deficiencies in current field accident databases (with respect to information about the causes and consequences of vehicle fires) and recommends enhancements to these databases which might provide researchers with better, more comprehensive information about the causes and effects of vehicle fires.