“Traffic safety data is the primary source of our knowledge about the traffic safety environment, human behavior and vehicle performance. Therefore, in order to address these safety problems, we require good data, meaning data [that] are timely, accurate, complete, uniform, integrated and accessible. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s … National Highway Traffic Safety Administration … has made improving traffic safety data one of the agency’s highest priorities.” (NHTSA, 2004) With support from Congress, the United States Department of Transportation has modernized and made significant improvements to traffic safety data in recent decades (see NHTSA, 2010). Data on crashes involving fatalities and serious injuries have improved markedly over the past 40 years, and this has allowed researchers to provide government officials with greatly improved information on which to base decisions. Policy-making with respect to traffic safety is becoming more evidence-based and less of a guessing game based on conventional wisdom or poor data. However, drivers have many crashes they do not report to police; the crashes are not recorded and do not become part of the traffic safety data. Although the data is old, in a previous NHTSA study ( Greenblatt, Merrin, Morganstein, & Schwartz, 1981), there were 264 unreported crashes and 215 reported crashes, essentially a 1.23: 1 relationship. Unreported crashes were less severe than reported crashes, but indications are that the economic cost is many billions of dollars each year. To understand the total cost of motor vehicle crashes, one must include information on unreported crashes. Unreported crashes have a significant impact upon both people and objects. In the same study, 13.5 percent of respondents in unreported crashes suffered bodily injury (Greenblatt, Merrin, Morganstein, & Schwartz, 1981), thus although unreported crashes are less severe than reported crashes, many people are injured. People involved in unreported crashes often self-medicate and avoid medical treatment; others go to a family physician for treatment or show up at the emergency department. Treatment costs and any resulting missed workdays need to be included in the total cost of traffic crashes, as do vehicle repair costs, and costs to repair public and private roadside structures (e.g., signs, guardrails, mailboxes). The overarching objective of this study was to collect nationally representative survey data on reported and unreported crashes, which NHTSA could use to estimate the annual number and costs of these crashes. This study, the National Telephone Survey of Reported and Unreported Motor Vehicle Crashes, collected detailed information important to developing effective NHTSA programs, including data addressing the following questions: • What is the current annual level of reported crashes and how does this level compare to other reporting systems (e.g., reported to the police, to insurance companies, to both)? • What is the current annual level of unreported crashes and how does this level compare to other estimates of unreported crashes, for instance, based on the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study? • How many people are injured in reported and unreported crashes? This includes estimates of people injured per crash and annual totals. • In what proportion of reported and unreported crashes was medical attention required? This includes visits to emergency rooms, urgent care clinics, physician offices, and other medical providers. • Are reported and unreported crashes different in some fundamental and important way? For instance, are they different in intensity, magnitude, or consequences? • What proportion of reported and unreported crashes required hospitalization and for how long? • How many days of work were lost due to reported and unreported crashes? • What are the main reasons that crashes are unreported? • What is the proportion of single-vehicle to multi-vehicle crashes in reported and unreported crashes? • In multi-vehicle crashes, what are the distributions in types of crashes (e.g., front, side, rear) for reported and unreported crashes? • What proportion of unreported crashes occurs on public roadways, driveways, or in parking lots? • Do unreported crashes cluster among specific demographic groups (i.e., age, income, or gender)? • What are the financial consequences of unreported crashes, both at individual and societal levels? • Is there a particular type of vehicle or vehicle characteristic that is involved more often in unreported crashes? This study provides sorely needed data on the circumstances under which unreported crashes occur. The data will allow NHTSA to develop strategies for reducing the percentage of crashes that go unreported, take steps to actually reduce the number of these crashes, and address the consequences to individuals and society. This study involved conducting a nationally representative telephone survey of non-institutionalized people age 16 years or older in all 50 States and the District of Columbia. We also included anyone injured as a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or if anyone was in a damaged vehicle where nobody sustained an injury. In late 2009 and the first half of 2010, interviewers telephoned respondents throughout the United States and asked if they had a motor vehicle crash within the last 12 months, or if they had been in a crash as a passenger, or as a pedestrian. Interviewers asked those who said they had a crash within the last 12 months whether a police officer came to the crash scene, had completed a report and, if a report had not been completed, why not. In addition, interviewers asked about the crash, including the number of vehicles involved, damage to vehicles, injuries sustained, days missed from work, medical care expenses, and a host of other questions. This study included calls to both landline and cell phone only respondents. A copy of the landline and cell phone surveys are included in Appendix A and B, respectively. MDAC conducted the study using the latest scientific survey research methods, such that the sample survey findings could be weighted and generalized to the entire United States. Before discussing the study findings, we provide background on NHTSA data systems and information found in Greenblatt, Merrin, Morganstein, and Schwartz’s National Accident Sampling System Nonreported Accident Survey (1981). 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