PDF: Fatal-Serious Injury Crashes Local and State 2009-9.30.19 — File 209408

To: Somerville City Council From: Somerville Police Department Crime Analysis Unit Subject: (208818) Fatal or Serious-Injury Motor Vehicle Crashes by Victim Mobility Method, Local and State Police Reports, January 1, 2009 – September 30, 2019 (ten years and nine months) The list of motor vehicle crashes provided in this memo is a response to the Council Order 208818 requesting “that the Chief of Police provide a list of fatal or debilitating crashes for the past ten years by victim’s mobility method, including car, bicycle, and foot, including both local and state-managed roads.” Understanding the Data In the list of motor vehicle crashes below, each row represents one crash and contains information as defined by the corresponding column title. The first column contains the date of crash. The second is “Reporting Police Agency,” which is the Police Agency of the Officer who wrote the Motor Vehicle Crash Report including the Somerville Police Department (SPD), Massachusetts State Police (MSP), and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police (MBTA). There are five reports “pending confirmation” of Reporting Police Agency. These are likely “Operator-only reports” for which no police report was submitted to the RMV. Prior to 2010, the RMV entered Operator-only reports into the same database as police reports. We are pending confirmation on whether these should be included or excluded from our dataset per standardization protocol. “Max Injury Severity Reported” is the most severe injury that was reported in each crash and is determined by the Reporting Officer based on State or Federal injury definitions. Per the Councilor’s request, the data included in this memo only includes crashes with Fatal and Serious Injuries and does not include crashes with suspected minor injury, possible injury, or no injury reported. Note that the injury classification system in Massachusetts changed in 2018 per U.S. Department of Transportation’s (US DOT) directive. For the purpose of this memo, the “Max Injury Severity Reported” will be reported using the new US DOT classification system. More information about the classification system and the definition is provided under Methodology – Motor Vehicle Crash Injury Classification. The column titled “Non-MV-Involved Mobility Method” identifies those crashes that involved non-motorists and classifies the non-motorist by mobility method, such as pedestrian (on foot), cyclist (on bicycle) and skateboarder (on skateboard). If a crash only involved motor vehicles, this field is labeled “n/a” (not applicable). Finally, the last column provides the full address as written on the crash reports. Data Sources and Methodology There are three sources of the Crash data included in this memo, one external and two internal. External data was extracted from IMPACT, MassDOT’s crash data portal of RMV records, which houses crash reports from every police agency. Internal crash data was extracted from SPD’s electronic crash report database, which was implemented in May of 2018, as well as historical records which are stored and formatted separately in an Excel file. The IMPACT database was used to identify all crashes reported by MSP and MBTA Officers from 2009 to present, as well as crashes reported by SPD Officers between the years 2009 and 2012 when SPD data tracking was less robust. From 2013 to-date, Somerville PD crash report data was compiled using the internal SPD datasets as well as IMPACT, as each source has strengths and weaknesses. These datasets were merged and duplicates were removed by matching exact address, date, time, crash type, as well as a general manual review. However, it is possible that a small number of duplicates were missed. Note that the crash report data housed on IMPACT is audited by MassDOT Analysts. However, 2018 and 2019 have yet to be completed so totals are subject to change. Similarly, totals from the most recent few months should not be

considered complete as there are delays associated with regional data collection, error corrections, manual data entry and upload. Motor Vehicle Crash Injury Classification Prior to 2019, each State used different terminology in their classifications of the most serious types of motor vehicle crash injuries. As part of a national effort to promote more consistency and standardization in defining serious injury, the U.S. Department of Transportation rolled out a single classification system which must be implemented by 2019. In anticipation of the deadline, the Mass RMV police crash report was updated in 2018. As detailed on the RMV CRA-65 Crash Report Form Suspected Serious Injury Definitions 9/26/18: The US DOT defines a serious injury using the MMUCC 4th Edition “Suspected Serious Injury (A)” attribute found in the “injury status” data element. There, a suspected serious injury is defined as any injury other than fatal that results in one or more of the following:  Severe laceration resulting in exposure of underlying tissues/muscle/organs or resulting in significant loss of blood  Broken or distorted extremity (arm or leg)  Crush injuries  Suspected skull, chest, or abdominal injury other than bruises or minor lacerations  Significant burns (second and third degree burns over 10% or more of the body)  Unconsciousness when taken from the crash scene  Paralysis For the purpose of this memo, the “Max Injury Severity Reported” will be reported using the new US DOT classification system. The classification definitions align but the terminology is slightly different as exhibited below. However, the provided list of motor vehicle crashes provided in this memo, only includes those involving fatal injury or Suspected Serious Injury. Massachusetts (previous) National (new) Fatal injury Fatal injury (K) Non-fatal injury - Incapacitating Suspected Serious Injury (A) Non-fatal injury - Non-incapacitating Suspected Minor Injury (B) Non-fatal injury - Possible Possible Injury (C) No injury No Apparent Injury (O) Unknown Unknown Not reported Not reported Not Applicable

Motor Vehicle Crashes that Caused Fatal or Suspected Serious Injury, by Victim Mobility Method, Local and State Police Department Reports, January 1, 2009 – September 30, 2019 (ten years and nine months)