What is the Fatality Analysis Reporting System?


The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) contains data derived from a census of fatal traffic crashes within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To be included in FARS, a crash must involve a motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway customarily open to the public and result in the death of a person (occupant of a vehicle or a non-motorist) within 30 days of the crash.

FARS was conceived, designed, and developed by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1975 to provide an overall measure of highway safety, to help identify traffic safety problems, to suggest solutions, and to help provide an objective basis to evaluate the effectiveness of motor vehicle safety standards and highway safety programs.

How does FARS work?

NHTSA/NCSA has a cooperative agreement with an agency in each State government to provide specific information in a standard format on fatal crashes occurring in the State. The agreements are managed by NCSA's FARS Program Manager, FARS Regional Operations Managers (ROMs), FARS IT Program Manager, and Regional Contracting Officer’s Technical Representatives (RCOTRs) located in each of the 10 NHTSA Regional Offices.

The State employees who gather, translate, and transmit the data are called FARS Analysts. The number of analysts in each State varies according to the State. Each FARS Analyst attends a formal training and is also trained on-the-job by other FARS analysts.

All FARS data on fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes are gathered from the State’s own source documents and are coded on standard FARS forms. The analysts obtain the documents needed to complete the FARS forms, which generally include some or all of the following:

  • Police Accident Reports
  • State Vehicle Registration Files
  • State Driver Licensing Files
  • State Highway Department Data
  • Vital Statistics
  • Death Certificates
  • Coroner/ Medical Examiner Reports
  • Hospital Medical Reports
  • Emergency Medical Service Reports

Each FARS Analyst enters coded data into a local computer; the data are then transmitted into NHTSA’s central FARS computer database daily. The data are automatically checked on-line for acceptable range values and consistency and again reviewed for quality upon arrival at NHTSA.

Range checks ensure that the codes submitted are valid. For example, a code “4” for the element “Sex” would be rejected by the system since “1” (male), “2” (female) and “9” (unknown) are the only valid codes.

Consistency checks ensure that no inconsistent data are entered. For example, if an analyst codes 11:00 a.m. as the time of the crash and “dusk” as the light condition, these codes would be rejected, as they are inconsistent.

Quality Control is a vital system feature. The checks just described are a major part of the overall quality control program. In addition, other checks for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy are carried out.

What data are included in FARS?

The FARS database contains descriptions, in standardized formats, of each fatal crash reported. Each crash has more than 125 different coded data elements that characterize the crash, the vehicles, and the people involved. The specific data elements may be modified slightly each year to conform to changing user needs, vehicle characteristics, and highway safety emphasis areas.

Coded Data Elements

All data elements are reported on four forms:

The Accident Form…
records specific information such as the time and location of the crash, whether a school bus was involved, the number of vehicles and people involved, weather conditions, and so on.

The Vehicle and Driver Forms…
record data on each crash-involved vehicle and driver. Specific data include the vehicle type, role in the crash, initial and principal impacts points, the most harmful event, the driver’s record and license status.

The Person Form…
records data on each person involved in the crash: their age and gender, their role in the crash (driver, passenger, non-motorist, or unknown), alcohol and drug involvement, injury severity, restraint usage, and so on.

Supplemental Data

Since 1987, FARS data has been supplemented with data from the Multiple Cause of Death file maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics. These data include (for fatally injured persons with a matching death certificate): specific cause of death, specific injuries, race, Hispanic origin, usual occupation and education level.

Added Elements

  • Race, Ethnicity Information
    Since 2001, FARS has recorded the Race and Hispanic Origin of fatally injured victims. This information is obtained from the death certificate only. The FARS variable and coding guidelines are based on the coding structure of the U.S. Department of Health (DOH) for their elements, Detail Race and Hispanic Origin.

  • GIS Information
    In calendar year 2000, FARS adopted the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Crash site location coordinate data was added to the data collection system. In calendar year 2001, a mapping tool was developed and implemented to improve this reporting. GIS adds value to FARS by reducing effort to record data into the system and, by expanding the ability to perform analyses with FARS data. Having the crash site location information in the FARS database allows FARS data to be linked to other GIS-based data sources and expands the database to offer more data fields for users. Additional data will permit users to answer traffic safety questions that cannot be answered with FARS data alone.