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The trafficway condition for inclusion in FARS is that a motor vehicle was traveling on a way customarily open to the public, together with a qualifying death within 30 days. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System uses that public-access condition for its fatal-crash census, so the national figures are not a record of every car accident on every kind of property. The functional road classes in the national table describe recorded crash locations, with selected classes shown separately rather than all classes combined into a single road-type label.[1][2]

Contents

Official definition and data selection

The trafficway identifier is a separate recorded field from roadway functional class, and the FARS manual describes route signing and identifying names or numbers in its location elements. An interstate designation in the functional-class table refers to that analytic road class, not a hand-drawn corridor boundary or every road that happens to share an interstate route number. The trafficway access condition and the roadway functional classification answer different questions, since public access governs FARS inclusion while functional class describes a characteristic of the recorded road.[1][2]

National figures

The 2020 trafficway functional-class comparison records 4,948 deaths in the interstate class, 11,618 in the other-principal-arterial class and 4,539 in the local class, with other classes omitted from this comparison. The 2021 trafficway functional-class comparison records 5,675 deaths in the interstate class, 12,896 in the other-principal-arterial class and 4,714 in the local class, with other classes omitted from this comparison. The 2022 trafficway functional-class comparison records 5,609 deaths in the interstate class, 12,369 in the other-principal-arterial class and 4,383 in the local class, with other classes omitted from this comparison.[3][4][5]

The 2023 trafficway functional-class comparison records 5,236 deaths in the interstate class, 12,378 in the other-principal-arterial class and 4,133 in the local class, with other classes omitted from this comparison. The 2024 trafficway functional-class comparison records 4,885 deaths in the interstate class, 11,816 in the other-principal-arterial class and 3,944 in the local class, with other classes omitted from this comparison.[6][7]

National figures[3][4][5][6][7]
YearDeaths: interstate functional classDeaths: other principal arterialDeaths: local functional class
20204,94811,6184,539
20215,67512,8964,714
20225,60912,3694,383
20235,23612,3784,133
20244,88511,8163,944

United States, 50 states and District of Columbia, excluding Puerto Rico. 2024 uses the Annual Report File; earlier FARS years use saved Final Files. Selected functional classes only, not an exhaustive classification.

Limits of the term and figures

The trafficway condition is customarily open to the public, not simply publicly owned, so ownership alone does not restate the inclusion test given in the NHTSA Overview. The selected functional-class columns are not an exhaustive road classification, and the national death counts do not measure miles driven or the chance of a car accident on those roads. The trafficway figures count people killed at recorded crash locations rather than people living near those roads, and the most recent FARS year remains subject to revision when finalized.[1][2]

On related publications

References

  1. abc "Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 (DOT HS 813 794)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  2. abc "Overview of motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2024 (DOT HS 813 791, April 2026)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  3. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2020 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  4. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2021 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  5. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2022 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  6. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2023 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  7. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2024 national data files (Annual Report File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record