The Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) dataset, which includes fatal accidents on U.S. public roads where at least one person died within 30 days of the accident, can be used for a variety of enterprise stories and as a resource for breaking news. NICAR has data available from 1975 through the end of 1998.
The data, collected by the U.S. Department of Transportation since 1975, includes an impressive array of details on each accident, including:
Weather, light and road conditions. Whether a school bus, police or emergency vehicle was involved. Previous speeding, drunk driving and other convictions of drivers. Alcohol and drug test types and results. Seat belt use and air bag deployment. Person killed was on the job at the time. Accident following a police pursuit. Accidents in designated school zones. Drivers cited for inattentiveness, drunk driving or other violations. Vehicle make, model and body.
New in the 1998 data are fields identifying the motor carrier identification number (which is required for trucks and buses crossing state lines) and driver height and weight.
The Roanoke (Va.) Times used the FARS data, along with state data on vehicle miles driven, to show that an interstate in Virginia was not as deadly as many people had come to believe.
The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. used FARS to report that fatal accidents had increased on a highway after the speed limit was increased to 65 mph. But they also discovered the increase was not unusual, after comparing the change to historical data.
Having the dataset readily available in your newsroom could also pay off for breaking news. For example, the next time someone is killed on the local interstate, you could be the first to say exactly how many people have been killed on that highway in the past 15 years. (The DOT didn't start including the exact name of the highway until the 1982 data).
The database consists of four relational tables representing the four levels of information police collect: accident, vehicle, person and driver.
More information is available on the NICAR Web site at www.nicar.org/datadfars MaryJo Sylwester can be reached by e-mail at maryjo@nicar.org