Highway Safety Facts

NHTSA - Behavioral Safety Researchhttps://doi.org/10.21949/15250201979PDFTech ReportNational Center for Statistics and Analysis (U.S.)National Center for Statistics and Analysis (U.S.)United StatesDriversHighway safetyStatisticsSafety programsCrash ratesVehicle miles of travelRegistrationsDOT-HS-804-030GPO-1979-O-630-186-2521The Congress has charged the Department of Transportation with the task of achieving a reduction in traffic accidents and their resulting deaths and injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the Departmental agency which formulates and administers safety programs designed to meet these goals. To evaluate existing and proposed highway safety and motor vehicle safety standards, identify problem areas, establish better safety systems and generate improved standards and remedial measures, a strong analytical foundation is required. The National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) was established to develop a comprehensive, reliable and timely data collection program and provide the necessary foundation to support NHTSA's highway safety activities. The Center is responsible for all activities related to accident statistics from experimental design through data collection, storage, analysis and dissemination.This is the third annual issue of the FACT BOOK prepared by NCSA. The FACT BOOK is a compendium of highway traffic safety information presenting statistical data on principal factors related to motor vehicle accidents and recent research and development activity in the field of highway safety. Over the past year the FACT BOOK was reorganized in an effort to improve its utility. This third annual publication is prepared in a fact sheet format, each issue a complete information piece on a single subject. As new data are acquired on a subject area, that FACT BOOK issue will be updated and reprinted. The FACT BOOK will not be published in its entirety in the coming years.This FACT BOOK consists of three volumes: Volume 1 contains exposure data pertinent to the precrash environment; and Volume 3 contains fatal accident data obtained from the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS). Volume 2 will be published in the next few months and will contain injury and accident data obtained from the National Crash Severity Study (NCSS).129