Laserfiche WebLink
Collaboration with the Hawaii County <br />Police Department (HPD) and the State <br />Department of Health (DOH) yielded data <br />on all traffic crashes and fatalities on <br />Hawaii Island roads. However, limitations in <br />the breadth of the data did not allow for a <br />meaningful analysis of potential solutions to <br />the traffic fatality epidemic. Additional data <br />was sought through the National Highway <br />Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) <br />Fatality Analysis Reporting System (EARS) <br />which included specifics regarding factors <br />associated with each crash (i.e., location, <br />speed, time, mode) as well as the <br />individuals involved (i.e., impairment, age, <br />gender, race). This allowed for a more <br />thorough analysis of historical crash data <br />which yielded the results herein. <br />It is acknowledged that as a rural island with <br />a relatively small, spread -out, residential <br />population, the number of traffic fatalities <br />per year is low which increases the margin <br />of error year-to-year. To address this, a <br />minimum of five years of historical data was <br />sought where possible to help identify <br />trends versus outliers. This data analysis <br />served as the starting point for developing <br />this action plan. For a more in-depth <br />assessment of the factors associated with <br />these crashes, additional data was sought <br />and obtained from the NHTSA National <br />Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA), <br />to provide a comparison of results for the <br />State of Hawaii and the entire United <br />States (U.S.). The latest demographics <br />associated with each community were <br />obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. <br />5 <br />