Introducing a New Standard of Care for Traffic Fatalities
When an automobile crash occurs in the United States, the official reaction includes emergency response personnel, law enforcement, and insurance agencies. Once the urgency of the moment has passed, the subsequent review and analysis centers on answering one question: To what degree is each person involved in the crash to blame?
Who messed up here and how much are they (or their insurance company) then liable for the resulting damage? It’s a very American approach.
People who do this work have a standard checklist of things they look at and document when analyzing a crash. A checklist makes the process of assigning blame more efficient. Again, efficiency is a very American priority.
Checklists make things efficient by narrowing options. When a crash occurs, the public response focuses only on a few contributing factors. Was the driver intoxicated? Were they speeding? Were they distracted? Look at this website put together by the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office to see the kinds of things safety officials document, track, and obsess over. It’s a short list.
In the medical profession, adverse outcomes go through a morbidity and mortality conference, a process of internal review where all contributing factors are considered. Yes, patients are responsible for their behavior, but to what extent did the clinic or hospital—through its processes, recommendations, environment, or other actions—contribute to the negative outcome? What could have been done differently?
Instead of assigning blame, the medical profession seeks to learn, improve, and reduce adverse outcomes over time.
Morbidity and mortality conferences are the standard of care in the medical profession. There is nothing equivalent in the traffic safety professions. That is, until now.
In January 2023, Strong Towns will launch a National Crash Analysis Studio to model a new standard of care for cities, towns, and neighborhoods concerned about reducing automobile fatalities.
Through a series of live web broadcasts, an assembled team of technical and non-technical experts will demonstrate how to do a full-cause analysis of fatal automobile crashes. They will look at data, hear testimony, and document the many factors that contributed to the crash.
Most importantly, they will publish a list of those factors so that the community can learn from the tragedy and work to reduce the number of traumatic crashes over time.
At this time, we are accepting applications from individuals, local groups, and cities that want to nominate a crash for analysis. There is no cost to the applicant, but we will ask applicants for assistance in assembling information for a proper analysis.
The Strong Towns Crash Analysis Studio is for local leaders—inside and outside of government—wanting to move beyond the Green Book, MUTCD, and other highway-derived design manuals to set a new standard of care for traffic safety. Follow along and learn how to make your community a Strong Town.
