MDOT’s new Crash Fatality Dashboard will be a critical part of state and local approaches to reaching zero roadway fatalities (Vision Zero).
Earlier this spring MDOT launched their new Crash Fatality Dashboard (CFD). The CFD was developed collaboratively between the Motor Vehicle Administration’s Highway Safety Office, the State Highway Administration and Maryland State Police and offers in-depth analysis of statewide fatal crash data. The data is sourced from the Maryland State Police Automated Crash Reporting System and the Maryland State Police Data Warehouse.
According to the press release:
“The work of our public safety partners is incredibly important to our combined mission of saving lives,” said Col. Butler. “With innovative approaches like the dashboard, we are able to identify areas for greater risk of fatalities based on specific driving behaviors. Using this information allows law enforcement to deploy additional resources where they are needed the most.”
Features of the new Crash Fatality Dashboard include:
- Interactive Data Broken Down by Jurisdiction. A heatmap provides a visualization of overall crash data and all data subsets may be broken out by year, month and jurisdiction.
- More Frequent Updates. Previously, crash data on ZeroDeathsMD.gov/CrashData was manually updated on a monthly basis. The new dashboard will be updated daily.
- Additional Crash Characteristics. The dashboard easily provides characteristics surrounding crashes including weather conditions, lighting conditions, and non-motorist movement. Additional information is available in detailed reports.
- Emphasis Areas. Expanding beyond the most commonly requested crash numbers, the emphasis area tab records fatalities that occurred in an intersection or work zone – as well as whether the vehicle left the roadway during the crash.
