GeographyJobs.caGeography Jobs First. In Canada |
![]() |
By Matt Hiland
June 30, 2009
This article is the second in a series that provides a high-level look at the typical data and processes for highway safety analysis.
Crash Reports
A crash report is a legal record of a traffic crash. Different states collect different data and use different forms to do so, but most of them collect at least some elements in each of the following categories:
Crash Data
General data about the crash includes the date, time, location, and others. The date, time, and location of a crash are critical to further analysis of its causes and possible safety improvements. The crash location can be identified in several ways, including but not limited to:
Vehicle Data
Information collected about each vehicle involved includes but is not limited to:
Person Data
Some information is collected about all people involved in the crash, but more is collected for the drivers of each vehicle. Data collected includes but is not limited to:
Environment and Factors
Additional information is collected about the road(s) on which the crash occurred, the conditions at the time and location of the crash, and other factors with either the vehicle or driver that may have contributed to the crash. These include but are not limited to:
Roadway Data
Data about the roads is usually maintained in a GIS. The roads are represented as a series of connected lines that make up a linear network. The ability to translate textual location descriptions (such as “100 feet north of the intersection of Highway 5 and Highway 36”) to spatial locations along the linear network is handled by a Linear Referencing System (LRS).
Different states collect and maintain different data about their roads. Key attributes for safety analysis include but are not limited to:
In Part 3, we’ll look at highway safety analysis processes.