Project Summary
The rural, isolated, tribal, or indigenous (RITI) communities in Washington State include twenty-nine federally recognized Tribes. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data from 2002 through 2011 shows the traffic fatality rate for Native Americans is 3.9 times higher than for non-Native Americans in Washington. Two-thirds of Native American pedestrian fatalities within Washington boundaries occurred in rural areas. However, existing databases in Washington State are incomplete for RITI communities.
As a result, it is critical to develop a data-driven safety related analytical platform to investigate the risk factors and safety status associated with RITI communities. Without high-quality data and data management systems, RITI communities are not eligible to receive funding for safety improvements. It is necessary to build up the comprehensive data infrastructure to enhance the ability to develop informed data-driven plans and mitigation strategies. To address this gap, this project aims to develop a regional multi-source database system for traffic safety data management and analysis of RITI communities in Washington State. This research effort will gather and leverage existing traffic accident databases within the Washington State and develop a database system to dynamically retrieve rural traffic crash data and graphically visualize the data for crash attribute analysis.
