Skip to main content
Data

Traffic Records

Analyzing reliable and accurate traffic records data is central to identifying traffic safety problems and designing effective countermeasures to reduce injuries and deaths caused by crashes. NHTSA works to ensure that complete, accurate, and timely traffic safety data is collected, analyzed, and made available for decision-making at the national, state, and local levels.

Additional Resources

NHTSA’s traffic records team, within the National Driver Register and Traffic Records Division of the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, is tasked with helping states improve their traffic safety data collection, management, and analysis capabilities through evaluation, training, and technical assistance. The traffic records team is responsible for the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria and helping states align their crash systems and documentation to the latest edition of MMUCC. NHTSA’s traffic records program provides coordinated guidance, outreach, best practices, and training and technical assistance designed to improve the six performance attributes of timeliness, accuracy, completeness, uniformity, integration, and accessibility for the six state traffic records data systems: crash, driver, vehicle, roadway, citation and adjudication, and injury surveillance.

Traffic records program assessments provide states with the information needed to plan traffic records improvement projects. All assessment formats below are based on the Traffic Records Program Assessment Advisory.

NHTSA’s State Traffic Records Assessment Program is a peer assessment of all six traffic records data systems, at no cost to the state, using the questions from Appendix E of the Advisory. Qualified independent assessors will evaluate the state’s responses and provide recommendations, specific and actionable considerations, and a final report. An experienced facilitator supports this process, which includes two meetings and a final report-out. States that wish to request a traffic records assessment should contact their regional NHTSA office.

Rather than a full traffic records assessment, states may request a targeted assessment of one or more specific state traffic safety information systems. For example, a state may request an assessment for only one or two data systems, rather than all six. States that wish to request a targeted assessment should contact their regional NHTSA office.

The Traffic Records Assessment - Self-Assessment Tool consists of a series of questions developed by NHTSA, with the input of subject matter experts, which will generate recommendations based on the states’ responses. The questions originate from Appendix E of the Advisory.

The Crash Data Improvement Program examines the quality of a State’s crash data and provides the State with specific recommendations to improve the quality, management, and use of that data to support safety decisions. This program is free to the States and made available on a first-come, first-served basis given available funds. States that wish to request a CDIP should contact their regional NHTSA office.

The GO Team program is designed to provide resources and assistance, at no expense to the state, to state traffic records professionals as they work to improve their traffic records data collection, management, and analysis capabilities. GO Teams are small groups of one to three subject matter experts designed to help states address specific traffic records issues. States that wish to request a GO Team should contact their regional NHTSA office.

The Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria Guideline identifies a minimum set of motor vehicle traffic crash data fields and variables that states should consider collecting and including in their state crash data system. MMUCC is the data standard for NHTSA’s records-based crash data systems.

NHTSA’s traffic records team MMUCC program consists of:

  • Maintaining the MMUCC Guideline document
  • Researching new technology, data collection methods, terminology, and definitions
  • Working collaboratively with industry and federal, state, and local agencies
  • Public outreach
  • Forming and facilitating the MMUCC committee
  • Tracking all incoming suggestions for improvement
  • Creating standardized educational resources and training curricula
  • Providing expert advice
  • Measuring state crash report and data system alignment to MMUCC

States that wish to request a free state-to-MMUCC alignment mapping should contact their regional NHTSA office.

  • Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) - Webpage
  • Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) - Webpage
  • Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE) - Website
  • National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) - Website
  • Manual on Classification of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes 8th Ed.(ANSI D16.1) Guideline (PDF, 1 MB)
  • National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)  - Website
  • Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) - Website
  • American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) Data Element Dictionary for Traffic Records Systems - Website

Questions?

If you have questions on any of our programs, we'd like to know.