National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD): Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2014-Present Datasets

The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) dataset is 2014-Present and from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and part of U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics' (BTS') National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). This current dataset is for FARS 2017 data. The FARS dataset includes 1 geospatial file and 25 tabular files. One of the primary objectives of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is to reduce the staggering human toll and property damage that motor vehicle traffic crashes impose on our society. FARS is a census of fatal motor vehicle crashes with a set of data files documenting all qualifying fatalities that occurred within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico since 1975. To qualify as a FARS case, the crash had to involve a motor vehicle traveling on a traffic way customarily open to the public, and must have resulted in the death of a motorist or a non-motorist within 30 days of the crash. This data file contains information about crash characteristics and environmental conditions at the time of the crash. There is one record per crash. On the NHTSA website, raw FARS data are made available to the public in Statistical Analysis System (SAS) data files as well as comma-separated values (CSV) files. Current and past raw FARS data are available at: ftp://ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov/fars/. The FARS/CRSS Coding and Validation Manual contains a detailed description of each data element including coding instructions and attribute definitions. The Coding Manual is published for each year of data collection; current and past manuals are available at: https://doi.org/10.21949/1520850.