High-quality State traffic records data is critical to effective safety programing, operational management, and strategic planning. Every State–in cooperation with its local, regional, and Federal partners–should maintain a traffic records system that supports the data-driven, science-based decision-making necessary to identify problems; develop, deploy, and evaluate countermeasures; and efficiently allocate resources. Functionally, a traffic records system includes the collection, management, and analysis of traffic safety data. It is comprised of six core data systems–crash, driver, vehicle, roadway, citation and adjudication, and injury surveillance–as well as the organizations and people responsible for them. Like the 2006 edition, this updated Traffic Records Program Assessment Advisory gives States information on the contents, capabilities, and data quality of an effective traffic records system by describing an ideal system that supports high-quality decisions and leads to cost-effective improvements in highway and traffic safety. In addition, the updated Advisory outlines a comprehensive approach for assessing the systems and processes that govern the collection, management, and analysis of traffic records data. The Advisory now provides a uniform set of questions derived from the ideal system as described above. The questions are used by a group of qualified independent assessors to determine how close a State’s capabilities come to the described ideal. There are three gradations: (a) meets the description of the ideal traffic records system, (b) partially meets the ideal description, and (c) does not meet the ideal description. The Advisory also provides State respondents with standards of evidence that identify the specific information necessary to answer each assessment question. This assessment instrument highlights a State traffic records system’s strengths as well as opportunities for improvement. The Advisory provides guidance to States on the collection, management and analysis of data used to inform highway and traffic safety decision-making. This includes data from the six core data systems and the State’s Traffic Records Coordinating Committee, its data use and management protocols, and the integration of traffic safety data for analysis purposes. Traffic records data is critical to States’ strategic planning processes. Indeed, quality traffic records data provides the foundation for the four major planning documents required by law: The State Traffic Records Coordination Committee’s own “multiyear highway safety data and traffic records system strategic plan” (TRCC strategic plan), the Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan (CMVSP), the Highway Safety Plan (HSP), and the Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). States need timely, accurate, complete, and uniform traffic records to identify and prioritise traffic safety issues and to choose appropriate counter measures and evaluate their effectiveness. (Author/publisher)
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