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State Data Program
The State Data Program supports NHTSA’s efforts to identify traffic safety problems, help develop and implement vehicle and driver countermeasures, evaluate motor vehicle standards, and to study crash avoidance issues, crashworthiness issues, and regulations. The State Data Program provides essential crash information detail that complements national data collection programs such as FARS and NASS GES. Crash data can be linked to other traffic records and injury outcome data to generate information about the environment of the crash and the medical and financial outcome of persons injured in the crash.
Consequently, other components of the State Data Program work to enhance the quality and utility of these crash data. These efforts include:
The State Data Program’s objective is to fully develop the analytic potential of all state data of relevance to highway safety. Currently, NCSA is expanding its capabilities to include more states in the program as well as taking steps to improve PAR quality and uniformity.
MMUCC: The purpose of MMUCC is to provide a minimum, standardized data set for describing crashes of motor vehicles that will generate the information necessary to improve highway safety within each state and nationally.
CODES: Injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes not only cause disability but also an unnecessary burden of increased taxes and insurance premiums. CODES evolved from a congressional mandate to report on the benefits of safety belts and motorcycle helmets. Probabilistic techniques have enabled large crash and injury statewide data files to be linked in a phenomenally short amount of time at relatively low cost.
SDS: Since the early 1980s, NHTSA has been obtaining state crash data files derived from data recorded on Police Accident Reports (PARs). NHTSA refers to the collection of these computerized state crash data files obtained from the participating states as the State Data System.
What’s New
State Data System Expansion: For many years, SDS consisted of a core of seventeen states. Dr. Jeffrey Runge, NHTSA’s Administrator, has made DATA one of NHTSA's top three priorities (SAFETY BELTS, ALCOHOL, and DATA). Dr. Runge rightly believes that good policy decisions are based on good data. Following Dr. Runge’s lead, NHTSA is now actively seeking new participants in SDS. Five new states have joined since January 2003. NHTSA's goal is to have all states, the District of Columbia, and the territories participate in SDS.
Statewide crash data provide the basic information for most of the analyses and data collection programs that support the NHTSA mission. Each state maintains a database that contains comprehensive information about people, vehicles, and conditions recorded in Police Accident Reports (PARs). Information will vary from state to state because each state has different data collection and reporting standards. Since the early 1980s, NHTSA has been obtaining crash data files derived from data recorded on PARs. NHTSA refers to the collection of these computerized state crash data files, currently obtained from eighteen states, as the State Data System.
The crash data files from the states are requested annually from the appropriate state agencies. In most instances, the coordinating state agency is the state police, the state highway safety department, or the state Department of Transportation. The files are received in various digital formats and converted to a common SAS data format. These SAS files are placed on the Local Area Network (LAN) where they are available for the analytical needs of the NHTSA staff. The state crash data files in the State Data System are not available to researchers outside DOT unless written permission has been granted by the state whose data have been requested.
Crash Data Report
The Crash Data Report provides extensive motor vehicle crash data from 1990-1999. These data are not representative of the nation as a whole, but do provide a 
comprehensive and illustrative census of motor vehicle crash patterns and trends for the 17 states in the State Data System at the time of publication: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington. South Carolina joined the State Data System in January 2003 and NHTSA is actively seeking additional members. NHTSA's goal is to have all states participate in the State Data System.
Crash statistics are presented in ten sections. General information can be found in the first three sections: Crashes, Vehicles, and People. The remaining sections focus on more specific data subsets. Sections 4 and 5 present alcohol- and speeding-related crash summary data. Specific vehicle actions and types are presented in Sections 6-8 (Rollovers, Motorcycles, and Large Trucks). Finally, Section 9 provides additional information regarding the ages of persons who were killed and injured, while Section 10 focuses on vehicle safety equipment.
State data availability, to include vehicle identification number (VIN) availability, is provided in Appendix A. Other state-specific information is given in the appendices B-G.
The report is divided into sections to make accessing and downloading easier. It is also available as a single ZIP file.
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