Fatality Analysis Reporting System
The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which became operational in 1975, contains data on a census of fatal motor vehicle 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 must result in the death of a vehicle occupant or a nonoccupant within 30 days of the crash.
NHTSA has a five-year cooperative agreement with an agency in each state to provide information on all qualifying fatal crashes in the state. These agreements are managed and funded by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) Office of Data Acquisition (ODA), State Data Reporting Systems Division (SDRSD). Trained State employees, called FARS analysts, are responsible for gathering, translating, and transmitting their state’s data to NCSA’s standard format. The number of analysts varies by state, depending on the number of fatal crashes and the ease of obtaining data.
FARS data are obtained solely from the States’ existing documents:
- Police Crash Reports
- Crash Report Supplements
- State Vehicle Registration Files
- State Driver Records
- State Roadway Classification Data
- Death Certificates
- Toxicology Reports
- Emergency Medical Service Reports
From these documents, the FARS analysts code more than 170 FARS data elements. The specific data elements may be modified slightly each year to conform to changing user needs, vehicle characteristics, highway safety emphasis areas, as well as aligning to the latest version of the Model Minimum Crash Criteria (MMUCC). The data collected within FARS does not include any personal identifying information, such as names, addresses, or social security numbers. Thus, any data kept in FARS files and made available to the public fully conforms to the Privacy Act.