The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) is a collection of files documenting all qualifying fatal crashes since 1975 that occurred within the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To be included in this census of crashes a crash had to involve a motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway customarily open to the public, and must have resulted in the death of a person (occupant of a vehicle or a nonmotorist) within 30 days of the crash. The purpose of this document is to provide an analytic reference to individuals who wish to conduct crash and vehicle research using the FARS data. There are a total of seven sections within this reference guide, namely the preface/instructions, list of variables, accident file, vehicle file, person file, compact disk comments, and references.
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