Drive to Zero Crash Data Dashboard

Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) Crash Tool

Scroll down to view and understand Fatal and Suspected Serious Injury Crashes in Kansas

Welcome

About the Kansas SHSP Dashboard

The DTZ Coalition is an executive-level body consisting of 22 members of state and federal agencies, non-profit and advocacy organizations, the private sector, and the Kansas House and Senate Transportation Committees. The DTZ Coalition and the SHSP aim to reduce fatal and suspected serious injury crashes on public roads in Kansas.

KDOT and the DTZ Coalition created this dashboard tool to aid traffic safety partners in understanding the nature, frequency, and spatial distribution of fatal and suspected serious injury crashes. Individuals, agencies, and coalitions can use the tool to identify problems and work on solutions.

More Information on the U.S. DOT Safe System Approach:  https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS/SafeSystem 

Safe System Approach

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) adopted a Safe System Approach (SSA) as the guiding paradigm to address roadway safety. The SSA works by reinforcing multiple layers of protection to prevent crashes from happening and minimize the harm caused when crashes occur. The SSA is a shift from a conventional safety approach; the SSA focuses on human mistakes, vulnerability, and a safety system with many redundancies in place to protect everyone.

The SSA is guided by six foundational principles which provide an understanding of the nature of roadway safety. The six principles in the U.S. DOT SSA include:

  • death and serious injuries are unacceptable;
  • humans make mistakes;
  • humans are vulnerable;
  • responsibility is shared;
  • safety is proactive; and,
  • redundancy is crucial.

Beyond these guiding principles, safety programs should be focused on infrastructure, human behavior, responsible oversight of the vehicle and transportation industry, and emergency response. To this end, the U.S. DOT SSA includes five objectives:

  • Safer People;
  • Safer Roads;
  • Safer Vehicles;
  • Safer Speeds; and,
  • Post-Crash Care.

The 4 "E's of Transportation Safety:" Education, Enforcement, Engineering, and Emergency Medical Services

Education strategies entail high-visibility campaigns and activities to encourage safe road user behaviors and to positively influence the transportation safety culture. Enforcement strategies include the creation of traffic laws as well as the citation and adjudication for violation of traffic laws. Engineering strategies include the design and maintenance of roadway features. Emergency Medical Services strategies entail timely post-crash care to prevent an injury crash from becoming a fatal crash.

Dashboards Overview

Notes to Dashboard Users

  • The dashboard includes only fatal and suspected serious injury crashes from close-out year data. Therefore, crashes occurring in the current year will not be available until the data is reviewed and finalized for federal reporting.
  • New crash data is added to the database on a nightly basis. Law enforcement agencies are to submit new crash reports within 10 days of the close of an investigation; however, note that crash investigations can be a lengthy process, especially for crashes that require information from outside agencies such as hospital records.
  • The dashboards are best viewed on desktop and tablet devices using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge.
  • The data provided in the dashboard does not contain personal or private information.
  • Dashboard features require ongoing maintenance and the deployment of new features may cause temporary outages. Please understand that these modifications and updates are necessary and pardon any inconvenience incurred by periodic updates.
  • These dashboards are best displayed on desktop devices as opposed to mobile devices.
  • This dashboard should be used primarily for systems planning and strategizing by emphasis area, NOT to do engineering analysis for projects.
  • Additional details on crash coding may be found in the  2019 Crash Coding Manual .

Using the Dashboards

Sidebar Filter

On the left side of the dashboard, there is a button that exposes an advanced crash selector filter menu. This allows the user to filter the emphasis area data by several predefined values. This includes spatial queries like city and county, and attribute queries like crash date, severity, and location type.

Filter Buttons

Within the main dashboard view, there are map and data visualization tools. The tools interact with the map to allow a user to filter the data by various values such as severity, location, and years.

Reset Button

If you select any filters, a blue refresh button will appear at the bottom right of the screen. The location will block the arrow to scroll right. However, you use the left arrow or the middle bar to navigate to other tabs within the window.

Click the blue refresh button on the bottom right of the screen to reset all filters, and the blue reset button will disappear.

Open the Dashboard in a New Window

The dashboards may take a few moments to load upon activation and are best viewed in a new tab or window. If the image is not displayed correctly, try opening the dashboard in a separate tab or window outside of this webpage.

Rural and Urban Crashes

The Rural and Urban Crash Selector has three options:

  • The "All Selected Crashes" does not filter the crash dashboard.
  • The "Urban" option filters the crash dashboard to only display crashes inside the urban area boundaries as defined by KDOT.
  • The "Rural" option filters the crash dashboard to only show crashes outside urban area boundaries.

Elements and Map

Each window on the dashboard includes an Info tab, which provides a brief description. The primary map and the tools can be expanded to a full-screen view and the legend can be modified.

Window Size

Some of the graphs may not display titles or labels for each category due to spatial restraints. This may be affected by your screen size. To see the titles and labels, expand the windows.

Change the Base Layer of the Map

To change the base layer of the map, click on the icon at the top right of the map.

Map Layers

The active map layers being shown when the dashboards first load include the crash points, the KDOT District boundaries, and the boundaries of every city in Kansas.

There are other layers on the map that can be activated by clicking the drop-down menu for the "layers" on the map. Toggling the "visibility" button, represented by an eye icon, turns on and off the layers. Layers turned off by default include Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) boundaries, Urban Area boundaries (multi-city areas with a population greater than 5,000, as defined by the most recent census), and the locations of K through 12 schools in Kansas.

Pop-up ID

When clicking on a crash point on the map, a pop-up ID will show on the screen. The pop-up will display information found in the crash record. If multiple crash points are near each other, then you can click on the arrows in the top right of the pop-up to change between the clustered crash points.

Understand the Data

Data displayed is derived from crash reports as submitted by law enforcement officers. Crash reports involve fatal, injury, and property damage-only crashes in excess of $1,000. Information in the crash report is based on the officer's observations during the crash scene investigation.

These dashboards display reported data from 2017 to 2021 for only fatal and suspected serious injury crashes. All other crash severity types are not displayed on this dashboard. Crash statistics from 2022 are expected to be available after the fall of 2023.

How are crash severity levels defined?

All crashes are assigned a severity level based on the highest level of injury severity that occurred in the crash. Crash severity in this dashboard tool is broken into two types :

  • Fatal Injury: Any injury that results in death to a person within 30 days after the crash in which the injury occurred.
  • Suspected Serious Injury: This is also referred to as "serious injury" in the dashboard. Any injury other than a fatal injury that results in one or more of the following as reported by the law enforcement officer:
    • 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 (loss of the ability to move or feel in part or most of the body)

Incident-level and Person-level Data

Dashboard features include both incident-level and person-level data. A single crash (incident-level) can have numerous drivers, occupants, or others (person-level).

For example, a single crash could involve two drivers and three occupants, resulting in one fatality and four suspected serious injuries. This would be described as one fatal crash resulting in one fatality and four suspected serious injuries.

SHSP Emphasis Areas

Emphasis areas are identified common users, circumstances, and conditions contributing to crashes and injury severity, as reported by law enforcement officers. The Kansas "SHSP Emphasis Areas" chart includes crash data relevant to SHSP emphasis areas, including:

  • Roadway Departure
  • Occupant Protection
  • Impaired Driving
  • Older Driver (Age 65+)
  • Intersections
  • Local Roads
  • Teen Driver (Ages 14-19)
  • Pedestrians and Cyclists

Driver Behavior Emphasis Areas

  • Occupant Protection: At least one occupant was unbuckled at the time of the crashes (only includes crashes involving vehicles where seatbelts are available).
  • Impaired Driving: Driving under the influence at any level of alcohol, legal or illegal drugs, or any combination thereof.

Roadway User Emphasis Areas

  • Teen Driver: Crashes involving any driver between the ages of 14 and 19 years.
  • Older Driver: Crashes involving any driver at or over the age of 65+ years.
  • Pedestrians/Cyclists: Crashes involving at least one motor vehicle and one non-motorist (pedestrian or pedalcyclist).

Crash Type Emphasis Areas

  • Intersections: Occurs at a potential conflict point of two or more at-grade roads (i.e., an intersection or is intersection-related).
  • Roadway Departure: A non-intersection crash where a vehicle departs its lane or runs off the road. Examples may include sideswipe or head-on crashes with other vehicles. Single vehicles may roll over or hit a fixed object.
  • Local Roads: Occurs on any roadway not owned by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) or the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA).

Crash Summary Dashboards:

01 / 09

Rest Services

Rest services are provided for advanced users who would like to conduct analysis separate of the dashboard application.

Contact Us

Kansas Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Safety Jim Hollingsworth, Safety Data Section Manager

Disclaimer

KDOT makes no warranties, guarantees, or representations for accuracy of this information or any materials that are downloaded and assumes no liability for errors or omissions. In addition, KDOT makes no warranties, guarantees, or representations for the private or public use of any information or materials found on this site. The use of any information or data is at the user’s own risk. This website is subject to 23 U.S.C. 407.

More Information on the U.S. DOT Safe System Approach:  https://www.transportation.gov/NRSS/SafeSystem