Safety Data Systems

Safety Data Systems Research Projects

SafeTREC research in progress

Explore our current research projects on safety data systems.


Completing the Picture of Traffic Injuries

Graph of complete picture model of traffic injuries

In this study, we introduced a new approach to evaluate road safety that focuses on the home address of individuals (i.e., home-based approach) who were directly involved in traffic crashes instead of the location of the crashes (location-based approach). While LBA explores the geographical distribution of traffic crashes by focusing on the location of traffic crashes, HBA considers the socioeconomics associated with the location of the person involved in the crash. This approach could be used to explore the road safety disparities by considering the factors surrounding home-address of the crash victims. Learn more.

Research Team: Chris Cherry, Eric Dumbaugh, Louis Merlin, David R. Ragland, and Laura Sandt.


Linking Crash and Post-Crash Data

Exhibit 2 showing datasets described in the report

This project addresses two different but important issues in California. One is to provide a more accurate picture of traffic injuries in California by utilizing medical data to fill in where police crash reports may not capture a crash or may have limited information. In this case two immediate applications are to obtain a better estimate of pedestrian and bicyclist injury and a better estimate of traffic injury on tribal areas. Learn more.

Research Team: David R. Ragland and Chris Cherry.



MIRE FDE Data Governance, Data Collection, and Integration

Graphic of Tasks Overview

Under the federal transportation act, all states will need to have a publically accessed and maintained data system in place that can be used to perform safety analyses on the Model Inventory of Roadway Elements, Fundamental Data Elements (MIRE FDE) on all public roads. All states must have a set of MIRE FDE collected on all state, local, and tribal roads by September 30, 2026 to be compliant. To meet this mandate, Caltrans has contracted with UC Berkeley SafeTREC to work with Caltrans, as well as tribal, regional and local agencies to develop a pilot plan for how these MIRE FDE will be collected, maintained, and shared. Learn more.

Research Team: Jill Cooper, Offer Grembek, Afsaneh Yavari, SangHyouk Oum, Hadi Soueidan, and Greg Harasym.