The District loses 32 people on average per year due to Crash Injuries
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser launched Vision Zero in 2015 to inspire and transform D.C.’s roadway safety efforts, and set our sights on a goal of zero fatalities or serious injuries on our streets. Since then, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has shifted to designing streets that are safe for everyone, working closely with community members to identify problems and build solutions.
Despite these efforts, a significant challenge remains: gaps in vehicle crash reporting. Accurate data is essential for Vision Zero to succeed, but often, the official crash records fail to reflect the true extent of what is happening on our streets. These gaps create blind spots, which undermine safety initiatives and make it difficult to pinpoint where the most dangerous traffic risks lie.
Charlotte Jackson, a data scientist and D.C. resident, noticed these gaps firsthand. She recognized that the lack of complete data meant some neighborhoods were being overlooked in the city’s safety efforts. Determined to uncover the truth behind the missing data, Jackson set out to investigate the scope of the problem
In 2021, Jackson embarked on a six-week project to analyze 911 calls and compare them with official crash data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). What she uncovered was shocking: nearly 30% of traffic collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists were missing from the MPD’s crash records.
Here’s what she found:
- More concerning were the crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists: Out of 236 pedestrian-related crashes, 71 (about 30%) were missing from the official crash reports. In other words, pedestrian and cyclist crashes were three times more likely to go unreported compared to vehicle-only crashes.
- 2,572 vehicle-only crashes were recorded, but 265 (about 10%) were unreported.
For Jackson, this missing data wasn’t just an issue of statistics; it was a matter of life and death. The people left out of the official records were also the ones being excluded from critical safety planning. Neighborhoods like Wards 7 and 8, which already experience higher rates of traffic violence, were disproportionately affected. This meant that the traffic safety concerns in these areas were being ignored.
Jackson’s work is a vital effort to improve traffic safety data and ensure that every community receives the attention it deserves. By identifying and closing data gaps, Jackson is helping make D.C.’s safety initiatives more accurate, inclusive, and effective.
Her commitment to this work is driven by a simple but powerful belief: Every life matters, and every community deserves to be counted. Charlotte’s work is a critical part of the Vision Zero movement—a call to action for safer streets for all. It reminds us that in the fight for traffic safety, data is not just about numbers—it’s about lives.
Learn more about Charlotte Jackson and her work uncovering the scope of the problem by reading this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/how-many-traffic-crashes-are-going-unreported