Lesson 4: Crash Events - Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents

FMCSA Crash Data Collection Resource Home Page

1. M.V. Traffic Accidents

2. Relevant Definitions

3. Definitions Contd.

4. Crash Events

5. Collision / Non-collision

6. Crash Example

7. Objects Set In-motion

8. Non-collision Events

9. Non-collision Contd.

10. Collision Events

11. Collision Events Contd.

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:

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