FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) is a nationwide census, not a sample, of every motor vehicle crash on public roads resulting in at least one death within 30 days. Unlike police crash reports or insurance claims, FARS data is standardized nationally, coded for contributing factors, and collected consistently across all 50 states. This makes it the gold standard for road safety research.

Cause categories in FARS are not mutually exclusive. A single fatal crash can involve multiple contributing factors, a driver who is both alcohol-impaired and speeding counts in both the alcohol and speeding categories. PlainRoadSafety follows NHTSA's methodology of recording all contributing factors, not assigning a single primary cause.

The fatality rate per 100,000 population is the annual number of road deaths divided by the state or county population, multiplied by 100,000. This normalizes for population size, so you can meaningfully compare a large state like California to a small state like Vermont. A rate of 12.5 means 12.5 people per 100,000 population died in traffic crashes that year.

The VMT rate is fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. States with more total driving are expected to have more total fatalities even without being more dangerous per trip. The VMT rate accounts for this by normalizing for total driving exposure. Rural states often have high per-capita rates but lower VMT rates because their populations drive the same distances as urban states, just with fewer people.

NHTSA classifies a crash as alcohol-impaired if any driver, pedestrian, or cyclist involved had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or above. This includes any involved party, not just the at-fault driver. Approximately 30-35% of all annual US traffic fatalities are classified as alcohol-impaired under this definition.

We cover 2015–2023 to provide a consistent 9-year window using recent FARS data with standardized cause categories. FARS data is available back to 1975, but older data uses different cause variable coding that requires additional transformation. The 2015-2023 window captures recent trends while maintaining methodological consistency.

No. PlainRoadSafety is an independent data portal and is not affiliated with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or any government agency. We present publicly available FARS data to make road safety information more accessible to researchers, policymakers, and the public.