National Trends

The Fatal Crash Completeness Measure evaluates a full calendar year of fatal crash records to determine your State’s rating. A record is evaluated if the date of the crash event—not the date of upload to FMCSA—falls within that calendar year. (This differs from the other State Safety Data Quality (SSDQ) measures, which evaluate a rolling 12-month period.) This evaluated calendar year is the most recent year for which Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data is available to the public. The evaluation period is updated when the next full year of FARS data becomes available.

This measure evaluates fatal crash records representing interstate, intrastate, and non-motor carriers, and includes only large trucks. It determines a rating based on a comparison of the number of State-reported fatal crash records in the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) to the number of your State’s crash records in FARS.

FARS is the national database of fatal motor vehicle crashes maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

If the percentage of State-reported records in MCMIS as compared to the number in FARS is

• 90% or more, the rating is GOOD
• Between 80% and 89%, the rating is FAIR, unless the number of FARS records reported is less than 10, in which case the rating is INSUFFICIENT DATA.
• Less than 80%, the rating is POOR, unless the number of FARS records reported is less than 10, in which case the rating is INSUFFICIENT DATA.

Complete fatal crash reporting helps FMCSA prioritize carriers for interventions that pose the greatest safety risk. Crash records reported to MCMIS are used by the SMS to assess carrier safety performance and prioritize carriers for interventions. The SMS weights crashes based, in part, on the severity of the crash.