Examining Deficiencies in Florida Pedestrian Crash Data

Abstract

In Florida, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles serves as the repository for state traffic crash data collected by law enforcement officers. These state data, which are collected on traffic crash reports, limit the type and the extent of the analysis that can be performed because of constraints and errors in the data. Florida state databases lack information from crash narratives and diagrams, which are not mined for data. In addition, crash report data are shown to contain errors. An analysis was initiated to investigate data from 318 fatal crashes involving pedestrians in which detailed traffic homicide reports and other data sources were consulted. The integrity of the state-maintained data for their accuracy and completeness was investigated. Alcohol usage, fault, speed limits, vehicle speeds, and citations were the leading data fields with errors. In the case of pedestrian alcohol test results, state database records were found to be in error more than half the time. Emphasis is given to the methods that can be used to create a quality crash data set and to highlighting the additional insights that can be gained from the homicide reports and other resources, especially for the accurate determination of fault and crash causation.