With an estimated 44,500 fatalities and more than six million police reported crashes in 1990 and economic losses from these crashes in excess of $100 billion per year, motor vehicle and highway safety continue as a top priority in transportation safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been charged with reducing these consequences of vehicular transportation. Essential for carrying out this mission is high quality crash data. The National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) is responsible for collecting and analyzing crash data to support key highway safety initiatives.
Through NCSA’s data collection and analysis programs, NHTSA can: 1) understand the factors that influence highway safety; 2) analyze benefits of future activities; 3) quantitatively identify the effectiveness of crashworthiness and crash avoidance vehicle design characteristics; 4) relate driver behavior factors to injury and fatality rates; and 5) provide a clear and concise picture of highway crashes in the United States. This paper summarizes these data activities and discusses program changes planned during the next five years to improve NHTSA’s ability to deal with emerging highway safety problems.