Guideline Development Criteria
Deciding Which Data Elements to Collect
In an effort to standardize only the minimum number of data elements for MUCC, the
following criteria were used as the basis for selection.
AN ELEMENT MUST BE APPROPRIATE. It must be needed for highway or traffic safety purposes. Elements which are administrative in nature or have little
or no application for highway or traffic safety analysis were not included.
AN ELEMENT MUST BE COMPREHENSIVE. It must include all aspects of the
definition.
EACH ELEMENT WILL INCLUDE:
- A definition;
- A set of attribute values; and,
- A rationale (importance to highway safety).
EXISTING STANDARDS DOCUMENTATION WILL BE FOLLOWED. ANSI
D16.1, ANSI D20.1, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the
General Estimates System (GES), the Critical Automated Data Reporting
Elements (CADRE), and the National Governors' Association
(NGA)/SafetyNet elements and definitions will be used where applicable.
However, modifications to definitions and values may be made to reduce the
size of the data set.
THE GUIDELINE WILL PRESENT ONLY THE DATA ELEMENTS. The Guideline
will not attempt to organize the proposed data elements and their attribute values into a reporting format. It also will not present coding values for the element values. States have the option of designing the format and content of their police crash report and the most appropriate data collection system and data coding conventions to meet their needs.
THE DATA SET COLLECTED AT THE SCENE WILL BE MINIMAL. Data for
analytical purposes will be derived from existing data elements or other data
files whenever possible. States have the option to expand the data set to
meet state specific needs.
DATA ELEMENTS WILL BE INCLUDED TO FACILITATE LINKAGE TO OTHER
DATA SOURCES. Data elements describing the location, date, time,
persons involved, and others are important for police to document the events
at the scene. When standardized, they are also useful for linking to other
state data.
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