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Considerations in the Use of the NHTSA Cardfile
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English
Abstract
The CARDfile was developed by NHTSA to aid problem identification and countermeasure development in the field of crash avoidance research. This paper summarizes the results of an evaluation of selected CARDfile data elements. Many of the variables of interest to crash avoidance, such as precrash stability, rural/urban, roadway separation, avoidance attempt, and VIN, are entirely missing for one or more of the CARDfile states. Such non-random missing data are likely to bias the resulting distributions. Other examples are described of missing and incompatible code values. Although five of the six states appear to code precrash stability, in fact there is not a single category on this variable that is recorded in every state, and no single state has all the categories. Thus the CARDfile cannot reflect the true distribution of these attributes for the aggregate of the six states. The authors conclude that perhaps the most significant disadvantage of the CARDfile is the appearance of uniformity that is created when, for many variables, this is not the case. In order to make valid inferences from the CARDfile, it is necessary to be familiar not only with the coding of the original state files, but also the additional translations that produce the CARDfile. These problems illustrate the advantages that more uniform accident reporting at the state level would provide.
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Citation
Campbell, K. and Massie, D., "Considerations in the Use of the NHTSA Cardfile," SAE Technical Paper 910894, 1991, https://doi.org/10.4271/910894.Also In
References
- McDonough J.J. Edwards M.L. CARDfile Handbook National Highway Traffic Safety Administration May 1987
- Edwards M.L. A Database for Crash Avoidance Research Warrendale, Pennsylvania Society of Automotive Engineers, Paper No. 870345 1987
- Salvatore S. Mengert P. Walter R. CARD file Data Base Representativeness, Phase I: General Characteristics including Populations, Vehicles, Roads, and Fatal Accidents Cambridge, Mass. Transportation Systems Center, Project Memorandum No. DOT-TSC-HS802- PM-88-16 August 1988
- Massie D.L. Campbell K.L. CARDfile Evaluation Ann Arbor, Michigan The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute March 1990