Logo
FMCSA Crash Data Collection Resource Home Page
Lesson 4 Menu
Crash Events

Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents:
FMCSA's SAFETYNET Crash Module records qualifying vehicles involved in crashes that are motor vehicle traffic accidents by definition as defined in the ANSI D-16 Manual on the Classification of Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents. The Selection Criteria is applied to determine reportability of vehicles involved in motor vehicle traffic accidents. To satisfy the definition of a motor vehicle traffic accident, the crash must not be the result of a deliberate act (suicide, police intervention) or a cataclysm (hurricane, flood) and must:

  1. Have at least one harmful event
  2. Involve at least one motor vehicle in-transport
  3. Begin within a trafficway OR
  4. Begin outside the trafficway with a harmful event occuring within the trafficway.