Skip to main content

New Guideline helps states better collect crash data

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the US has announced that the 4th Edition of the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) Guideline has been posted online at www.mmucc.us. The voluntary guideline helps states determine what data to collect at the scene of a motor vehicle crash. The Guideline will, among other things, help states better capture data for emerging issues such as distracted driving, secondary crashes and incidents on private property as well as determine the level of seri
July 3, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 4948 Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the US has announced that the 4th Edition of the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) Guideline has been posted online at %$Linker: External 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.MMUCC.us Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria website false http://www.mmucc.us/ false false%>.

The voluntary guideline helps states determine what data to collect at the scene of a motor vehicle crash. The Guideline will, among other things, help states better capture data for emerging issues such as distracted driving, secondary crashes and incidents on private property as well as determine the level of serious injury from motor vehicle crashes. States will be able to use federal funding authorised under the new surface transportation MAP-21 legislation to make improvements in their crash and other related data systems and come into compliance with the new MMUCC Guideline.

"Accurate data is essential for states in planning their highway safety programmes and selecting counter-measures that will have the most impact in reducing crashes, serious injuries and fatalities," said Barbara Harsha, GHSA executive director. "States use their crash data to better assess where to invest their limited resources.“

The new distracted driving data element is more descriptive and includes attributes such as manually operating an electronic communications device; talking on hands-free electronic device; talking on hand-held electronic device; other activity; electronic device; passenger; other inside the vehicle (eating, personal hygiene, etc.) and outside the vehicle.

"The intent is for law enforcement to capture a wider range of information about drivers in crashes who were obviously distracted," said Harsha.

MMUCC also includes a better definition of serious injuries by breaking injuries into five logical categories and providing clear definitions for each category. The five categories include: fatal, suspected serious injury, suspected minor injury, possible injury and no apparent injury.

A MMUCC Expert Panel consisting of state and local law enforcement officials, state traffic records coordinators, state department of transportation representatives, state health officials, members of the research community and officials from five federal agencies helped the GHSA and the 834 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration oversee the effort to update the 3rd Edition of MMUCC to make this resource the best it can be for safety stakeholders across the United States.

Related Content

  • US parking tools refreshed
    March 9, 2018
    The US Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and National Parking Association have agreed to work together on updating their respective Parking Generation Manual and Shared Parking tools, last revised in 2010 and 2009. Fresh analyses in the former will differentiate levels of demand in rural, general urban/suburban, dense multi-use urban and core city centre locations, said ITE CEO Jeffrey F Paniati
  • Trump calls on Congress to produce $1.5tn bill for infrastructure
    February 1, 2018
    President Donald Trump has announced a plan in his State of Union to push Congress to approve a $1.5tn (£1.05tn) scheme which he described will “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.” A report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association revealed that 54,259 of the nation’s bridges are rated structurally deficient with Americans crossing them 174 million times a day. The president added that every Federal dollar should be leveraged by
  • Uber ‘disabled braking system’ in fatal crash
    May 30, 2018
    Uber had disabled the emergency braking function of the Volvo XC90 which killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona in March. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says the car was “operating with a self-driving system in computer control mode” when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing a bicycle across the road. According to the NTSB report, Uber said “emergency braking manoeuvres are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the
  • Maintenance free passenger information board
    February 26, 2014
    deZign, an innovation in the field of electronic passenger information systems, is a maintenance-free display based on electronic ink (EInk) technology. It requires no energy while displaying fixed content.