MMUCC
MODEL
MINIMUM UNIFORM
CRASH CRITERIA
GUIDELINE
Improving Crash
Data for Safer Highways
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) is to provide a data set for describing crashes of motor vehicles that will generate the information necessary to improve highway safety within each state and nationally.
Statewide motor vehicle traffic crash data systems provide the basic information necessary for effective highway and traffic safety efforts at any level of government — local, state or federal. State crash data are used to perform problem identification, establish goals and performance measures, allocate resources, determine the progress of specific programs, and support the development and evaluation of highway and vehicle safety countermeasures. Unfortunately, the use of state crash data is often hindered by the lack of uniformity between and within states.
MMUCC represents a voluntary and collaborative effort to generate uniform crash data that are accurate, reliable and credible for data-driven highway safety decisions within a state, between states and at the national level.
MMUCC was originally developed in response to requests by states interested in improving and standardizing their state crash data. Lack of uniform reporting made the sharing and comparison of state crash data difficult. Different elements and definitions resulted in incomplete data and misleading results.
MMUCC recommends voluntary implementation of a “minimum set” of standardized data elements to promote comparability of data within the highway safety community. It serves as a foundation for state crash data systems.
Efforts to standardize crash data have increased since MMUCC was originally recommended as a voluntary guideline in 1998. More and more states included MMUCC in their data review process as they sought to revise their crash report forms. Updates of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard D16.1-1996, Manual on Classification of Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents, Sixth Edition, and the ANSI Standard D20.1, Data Element Dictionary for Traffic Records Systems, used to develop and update MMUCC, will be coordinated during their normal review processes to be consistent with the MMUCC Guideline, 2nd Edition (2003) wherever appropriate.
Congress has supported the improvement of crash data. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA21) has recommended the development of model data elements.
Implementation of MMUCC is a collaborative effort involving the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA — formerly NAGHSR). The review and update of the MMUCC Guideline, 1st Edition (1998) has been structured to obtain maximum input from all sectors of the highway safety community. Over a 12-month period during 2001-2002, feedback was obtained from meetings, via the Web, email, phone, mail, etc., before producing the MMUCC Guideline, 2nd Edition (2003).
The MMUCC data elements represent a core set of data elements, most of which were being collected by the states before the first edition of the MMUCC Guideline was published. The 113 data elements contained in the MMUCC Guideline, 1st Edition (1998) were revised in response to emerging issues and other highway safety needs. The second edition of the MMUCC Guideline contains 111 data elements.
Five new data elements were added to document distracted drivers, special use vehicles, roadway information at the vehicle level, hit and run crashes, and vehicle contributing circumstances. Only half of the data elements needed to be revised to meet the needs of NHTSA, FHWA, FMCSA, GHSA and the highway safety community at the local, state, and national levels. The remaining data elements required only minor editorial changes or were left as is.
The MMUCC Guideline, 2nd Edition (2003) recommends that states implement all 111 data elements included in this document. To reduce the data collection burden, MMUCC recommends that law enforcement at the scene should collect 77 of the 111 data elements. From crash scene information, 10 data elements can be derived while the remaining 24 data elements, related to the person and roadway involved, should be obtained after linkage to driver history, injury and roadway inventory data. States that are unable to link data should collect, as a minimum, those “linked data elements” that are feasible to collect on the crash report. At the same time, states should work to develop data linkage capabilities so that, over time, they are able to obtain, via linkage, all of the information to be generated by the MMUCC “linked data elements.”
State data sets and systems are difficult to implement and/or change so no changes will be made to the MMUCC Guideline, 2nd Edition (2003) for five years. During this period, each of the data elements and their attributes will be monitored to determine their usefulness and reliability. The next planned update of the MMUCC Guideline is scheduled for 2008. At this time, the feedback will be considered to ensure that MMUCC is revised to meet the current needs of highway safety at the local, state, and federal levels.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Governors Highway Safety Association sponsored the development of the MMUCC Guideline, 2nd edition (2003). Numerous state and local agencies and organizations participated in the review process. The expert panel members for the revised MMUCC Guideline are recognized below (See Appendix A for contact information). Other participants who attended the Update MMUCC Workshop at the 28th International Traffic Records Forum, August 2002 are listed in Appendix B.
David Bozak*—InfoGroup, Inc.
David Dickens*—Charleston WV Police, retired
Jim Dickerson—Louisiana Highway Safety Commission
Eric Dow—Fayetteville, NC Police Department
Scott Falb*—Iowa Department of Transportation
Rosa Gill*—North Carolina State Division of Motor Vehicles
Kenneth Hackman—National Institute for Safety Research, Inc.
Dick Harmon*—Formerly, Iowa Department of Health/EMS
Loren Hill—Minnesota Department of Transportation
Larry Holestine—Colorado State Patrol, retired
Jack Latterell—Iowa, Consultant
Suzanne Lee—Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Creighton Miller*—SD Office of Accident Records, DOT
Kevin D. Miller—Rapid City, SD Police Department
David Mosley*—Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles
Mitchell Nixon—Gainesville, FL Police Department
Marc A. Reider—Tredyffrin Township Police Department, Chester County, PA
Manu Shah*—Maryland Department of Transportation, Traffic Safety Analysis
Karen Sprattler—Mother’s Against Drunk Driving; formerly NHTSA
Abby Warchal—Ohio Department of Public Safety
Betsy Benkowski—Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Nancy Bondy—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Ralph Craft*—Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Dennis Flemons*—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Mike Griffith*—Federal Highway Administration
Carl Hayden*—Federal Highway Administration
Sandy Johnson*—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Tina Morgan*—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Greg Radja—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Barbara Rhea*—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Jackie Schraf—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Seymour Stern—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Meg Sweeney—Bureau of Transportation Statistics, formerly NTSB
Carol Tan Esse*—Federal Highway Administration
Dennis Utter*—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Rick Waxweiler—National Center for Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control
Barbara Harsha*—Governors Highway Safety Association
Donald Reinfurt—North Carolina, Consultant and Facilitator for Expert Panel
*Participated in the 1997 MMUCC Expert Panel.
Other persons who made significant contributions to the initial development of the MMUCC, 1st Edition (1998) are listed below. Included in this group is Janet Johnson who created the acronym “MMUCC”.
Noel Bufe—Northwestern University Traffic Institute
Frank Carlile—Florida Department of Transportation
Charles Compton—University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute
Doug Donscheski—Nebraska State Patrol
Don Hillis—Missouri Department of Transportation
David Kleppe—North Dakota State Highway Patrol
David Lawrence—California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention
Roy Lucke—Northwestern University Traffic Institute
Gary March—March & Associates
Lance Mathess—Ohio State Patrol
Richard Pain—Transportation Research Board
Charles Peltier—International Association of Chiefs of Police
Phil Salzberg—Washington Traffic Safety Commission
Matt Snyder—International Association of Chiefs of Police
James Templeton—Texas Department of Public Safety
Robert Thompson—Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau
Patricia Waller—University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute
John Watson—New York State Department of Transportation
Janet Johnson (deceased)—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Janet Kumer—Federal Highway Administration
Ed Milton—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Jack Oates—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
David Sleet—Centers for Disease Control and Prevention