Too many people are dying on our roads every year. To save more lives, and to move us toward the goal of zero road fatalities, we need to get the best information possible about how and where serious injuries occur – and then we need to direct resources to improve safety in those locations.

Through the Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation has developed two tools to help states do just that: a national definition for serious injuries and the development of State Serious Injury Conversion Tables.

_{Image credit: Vlad Lazarenko via Wikimedia Commons}

In the past, state transportation departments and law enforcement agencies have used varying definitions and different coding conventions to report serious injuries.

Unfortunately, this has led to inconsistent reporting by the states and law enforcement which, in turn, resulted in poor data quality and hampered our ability to provide accurate analysis. 

Poor data can lead to ineffective countermeasures, and in turn, that can lead to lost lives. We can’t afford to be wrong on an issue this important.

Getting the best crash countermeasures in place requires getting the most accurate and consistent data available.

With that in mind, U.S. DOT developed a standardized definition for reporting serious injuries to the federal government based upon the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC), which can be found at http://www.mmucc.us/.

States are required to be compliant with the new serious injury definition by April 15, 2019. Through our various offices nationwide, the U.S. DOT is ready to assist states by providing technical assistance and resources on this important issue.

For example, we are developing a police roll call video that can help officers completing crash reports understand the new definition and how to report suspected serious injuries. FMCSA, FHWA, and NHTSA, with assistance from our law enforcement partners and other safety stakeholders, will distribute the video in the coming months.

In the meantime, by using U.S. DOT’s State Serious Injury Conversion Tables, state and local agencies not currently using the new national definition can convert and report their serious injury data in upcoming Highway Safety Improvement Plan reports and their Highway Safety Plans.

With these tools, state DOTs, state highway safety offices, highway safety officials, and law enforcement agencies can better identify the types of injuries they are seeing and where they are happening.

This will enable us to identify the correct countermeasures to use to get people safely to their destinations and, ultimately, save lives.