Fatal Crash Reports 2022 - Present

Year	Total Fatalities	Hit and Run	Pedestrian	Bicycle/Scooter	Motorcycle
2024	91	12	21	2	11
2023	136	26	40	1	20
2022	131	20	45	2	7

I am actively working to add advanced filtering to this dataset. I apologize for the lack of it in the meantime. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data, please note that the information provided may not be entirely precise or complete. The latitude and longitude locations have been geocoded by Google Maps based on the nearest address and/or intersection. Additionally, the locations of Interstate crashes have been manually corrected to the best of my ability for accuracy.

My Statement

I have noticed that Metro Nashville’s Traffic Accidents dataset does not include information about fatalities, even though there is a specific field for it. It’s crucial for accountability that this dataset accurately reflects the number of deaths on our roads. When I contacted MNPD IT Public Requests about this issue, they explained that fatalities are not included in the accident dataset on the open data portal because they are not always immediately releasable. While I understand this, I am disappointed by the lack of due diligence in maintaining this information.

I am aware that MNPD currently sends daily emails to NDOT with information about crashes that are life-threatening and deadly. NDOT then tracks this information and uses it to update the Vision Zero Advisory Committee at our monthly meetings. So, some due diligence is being carried out: MNPD is aware of these fatalities and their respective accident numbers.

My request is two-fold:

• Create an internal form that MNPD can utilize to update these dataset entries so that they are accurate. This can simultaneously notify NDOT, and anyone else who needs to know, for their tracking purposes as entries are updated in lieu of the email already being sent. Having this resource in place to streamline that work will benefit everyone tremendously.
• MNPD Records work with the necessary Database Admins to update all standing entries to reflect fatalities. I know that they have this information because I requested a data dump of pedestrian fatal crashes for the last five years.

I want to stress again the importance of making these updates, not just for accuracy, but for the safety of everyone on our roads. The lack of transparency and timely reporting of fatal crashes limits our ability to address dangerous conditions and prevents meaningful accountability. Vision Zero’s goal is to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries, but that work is constrained without accurate information and accountability. My request is more than reasonable considering the importance of this work.

If Metro Nashville corrects its dataset to a satisfactory standard and implements policies to maintain it adequately, this page will no longer be necessary and I will remove it.

Oct. 17 Update

I continued my investigation into this issue over the past few days.  It sounds like my email and public outreach have brought some attention to this issue: data.nashville.gov now has a banner reading “We are aware that there are issues with some of our layers.  The Vendor is working on the issue.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.”  Additionally, the Traffic Accidents dataset is currently displaying zero records.  I am pleased to see this is being worked on and will verify that the updated dataset is complete and accurate once it is done. I am hoping it is timely, but a Data Dump request I submitted in June took a full month to complete.

Another Vision Zero Advisory Committee Member shared the link to the MNPD Data Dashboard, including the Vehicle Crashes Map. This Data Dashboard is not linked or displayed anywhere on MNPD’s main page, which needs to be remedied.  Unfortunately, the Vehicles Crashes Map only shares data back to the beginning of 2023 and lacks some critical fields that were present on the Traffic Accidents dataset available on data.nashville.gov.

Nonetheless, I downloaded the CSV data file from MNPD’s Vehicle Crashes Map, and the GEOJSON file from the Traffic Accidents dataset (when it was available on 10/14).  When I ran Python scripting to match the accident numbers categorized as ‘Fatal’ from MNPD’s Map to the accident numbers in the Traffic Accidents dataset, it only found one match out of 204.  Further, when I compared all accident numbers from MNPD’s Crashes Map to the Traffic Accidents dataset, it only found 60%.  Aside from the lack of fatal crash information, the Traffic Accident dataset was woefully incomplete. 

I will continue to provide updates as they are available and continue to make this map as robust as possible in the meantime.

Oct. 18 Update

The banner on the data.nashville.gov homepage yesterday is gone, and the data is back in the Traffic Accidents Dataset. There are still zero fatalities listed in the dataset. I downloaded a fresh GeoJSON file from it, and a fresh CSV from MNPD’s Data Dashboard.

I created a Python script to filter all accidents listed as ‘Fatal’ in the Vehicle Crashes Dashboard and match the accident number to that in the Traffic Accidents dataset. It did not find a match:

I then created a Python script to run a comparison and found that the Data Dashboard currently lists 47,715 crashes. Comparing it to the Traffic Accident dataset, it only found 28,511 matches – or 59.75%.

As of about 2:00 pm this afternoon, Open Data Administrators have hidden “the fatalities field so that it is not confusing to users.” Rather than address the problem, we have simply removed the field altogether.