Updated Crash Forms & How They Influence Vision Zero
The City of Omaha is deep in the process of developing a Vision Zero Action Plan that will support the Mayor’s goal of safer streets for all.
Vision Zero is a data-driven approach to reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our roads.* Data, especially quantitative data, is important because it provides an accurate picture of the nature and safety of our roads and drivers. This data is used to identify high-injury networks and then design evidence-based solutions to address these dangerous areas in our road network.
However, what I’ve learned from being on the Vision Zero Technical Advisory Committee is that data is only useful if you HAVE it. For instance, during the TAC’s Distracted & Impaired Driving Focus Group a few months ago, we learned that since not much data is gathered on distracted driving, we don’t really know if distracted driving is the problem many of us “believe” it to be in the State of Nebraska.
We need to widen our nets to gather all the pertinent data.
And the State did just that!
THE UPDATED MANUAL
The Nebraska Department of Transportation recently released the 5th edition of the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) Guideline titled the “Investigator’s Motor Vehicle Crash Report Manual - April 2023” which provides a standard set of motor vehicle traffic crash data variables to be collected on crash forms.
This 61-page document is a uniform guide for enforcement officers who collect crash data, specifically the manual states:
“The information collected by law enforcement officers on these reports provides the foundation for the statewide crash database, which is the foundation for crash analysis and contributes to the success of the state’s highway safety program. Accurate reporting of motor vehicle crashes ultimately serves to make Nebraska’s roadways a safer place to travel.”
See how important data is?
The last major update to this Guide was in 2002 – over 20 years ago! Think about how much the nature of crashes has changed since then. In that time our cell phones have been inextricably integrated into our lives (and cars) and vehicle size has increased.
The Forms
I had NO idea how comprehensive these crash reports are. As an aside, notice the use of the term “crash” instead of “accident,” this is important as the word accident implies no one or no thing is at fault, but a “crash” indicates fault, whether shared amongst users or infrastructure.
There are a total of 6 possible forms an enforcement officer could choose from at a crash, including 1) General form, 2) Continuation form, 3) Vehicle Continuation form, 4) Heavy Truck/Bus form, 5) Non-motorist form, and 6) Fatal form.
See the image below from the Manual to understand which form is used for which scenario.
A crash investigation form basically gathers every variable from location (including latitude & longitude) and infrastructure (intersections, road surface, traffic controls, etc) to context (seating arrangement, weather, restraints, helmets, etc) and injury (fatal, serious, suspected serious, minor, none, etc).
The Updated Forms
To better understand the changes to the crash forms, I reached out to Don Butler at the Nebraska Department of Transportation and Lt. Straub of the Omaha Police Department. Butler works for the agency that released the manual, and Straub works for the agency that uses the manual.
It’s Bigger
Yep, the new crash forms have 50% more fields for collecting data! This means a heavier load now for crash investigators but beneficial data for planners and engineers in the future.
Per Don Butler, here are some of the new categories of data that will be collected for these updated crash forms:
Distracted Driving Details
Speeding Details
Additional Roadway Characteristics
Non-Motorist Action & Location Prior to Crash
Additional Details When Crash Involves Fatality
Vehicle Automated Driving Systems
Commercial Motor Vehicle Trailer Details
Drug Impairment Testing
Notice the first category of Distracted Driving. Having officers gather this data will provide the State with a more accurate picture of the severity of distracted driving in Nebraska. Once that data is gathered, it has to be analyzed, interpreted, and then presented. And then, State and Municipality leaders can really start to make some headway on creating solutions to our distracted driving problem.
Every new bit of data that is gathered from the categories above can be used to inform solutions to problems even beyond distracted driving, such as speeding, infrastructure and design, autonomous vehicles, impairment, and more.
Do these new forms change the investigation?
In a nutshell, no, the investigation remains mostly unchanged. Lt Straub explained that while the forms are larger and capture more data for statistical purposes, they don’t really affect the investigation, “it just provides more data.” Think about that – enforcement officers are essentially acting as researchers collecting data to be used down the road for safety measures.
How does this influence Vision Zero?
Vision Zero is data-based, so more data means hopefully better and more accurate decision-making. And after 20 years, it’s great to see the Crash Forms be updated, and it’ll be even better to reap the benefits of all this additional data. But if the City of Omaha expects the Vision Zero Action Plan to be complete this year, how does future data collected via these new forms influence Vision Zero? Well, Vision Zero Action Plans are living documents, such that any new data can inform any updates to a City’s existing Plan - and cities SHOULD update their Vision Zero plans. Additionally, one of Omaha’s Vision Zero goals is to provide more data about crashes on their local dashboard, because at this point only fatalities - not serious injuries - are reported. So these new forms will provide more data (after it goes through the process of analysis and interpretation) that can be presented to the public and decision-makers. Hopefully, in the future, our local dashboard will also include information on distracted driving, and you’ll have NDOT as well as state and local enforcement agencies to thank for that.
* For a recap of the Vision Zero process so far, check out our VZ-focused posts, including:
The First Meeting of the VZ TAC
Vision Zero Update: Guiding Principles & Focus Areas
Navigating Omaha’s Vision Zero Efforts
Vision Zero Update: The Problems, the Solutions, and the Focus Groups
Progress Update on Omaha’s Vision Zero Efforts
Thanks for reading, and please comment below!
Cover image via Unsplash via Getty Images