In the fall of 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) formed a multidisciplinary integrated project team (IPT) to address the role of data in achieving the U.S. Department of Transportation's Safety Strategic Objective: "Enhance public health and safety by working toward the elimination of transportation-related deaths and injuries." The team consulted experts in the field, including those from the States and in academia, in order to develop priorities and recommendations for NHTSA's Administrator about the best methods for obtaining the information needed to promote traffic safety. The team's mandate was specifically to identify data gaps and outline how data and related processes could be improved to address the increasing complexity of traffic safety and vehicle issues. This report contains the IPT's findings and recommendations. It presents an in-depth look at routinely collected and accessible traffic safety data and provides initiatives and recommendations for federal and State stakeholders to improve traffic safety data needed to reduce deaths, injuries, injury severity, and costs. The recommendations articulate the direction and steps needed for the data to be improved and more useful to all stakeholders involved.
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