UMTRI division changes name to reflect its broad focus

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has changed the name of its Survey and Analysis Division to the Transportation Safety Analysis Division.

As an interdisciplinary team, the Transportation Safety Analysis Division will continue to advance motor vehicle safety through its data collection and analysis activities and a fundamental understanding of traffic safety.

"The name change more accurately reflects our division’s role and incorporates our broad research focus," said John Woodrooffe, head of the Transportation Safety Analysis Division.

Since 1980, the division has annually conducted the comprehensive Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) survey. The TIFA file is recognized as the nation’s most reliable and detailed source of information about the configuration and operations of every truck involved in a fatal accident in the United States.

In 1988, the Center for National Truck Statistics (CNTS), an operational unit within the division, was established to formalize this developing national program to collect and analyze truck accident data.

A national bus survey, patterned after TIFA, began for the 1999 data year and has continued on an annual basis. To reflect its new scope, CNTS became the Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics (CNTBS) in 2003.

Another unit within the division, the Statistical Analysis Group, applies statistical methods in the analysis of traffic safety, including collision-avoidance and crashworthiness issues. Projects generally involve the analysis of accident and travel data to study the risk of accident involvement or the risk of injury in a collision.

The Transportation Data Center (TDC) became a formal part of the Transportation Safety Analysis Division in 1999. TDC provides a readily accessible source of motor vehicle crash data and other transportation-related data sets, as well as expert consulting for data users.

UMTRI is committed to interdisciplinary transportation-related research that will ultimately increase driving safety and further transportation systems knowledge. For more information, visit http://www.umtri.umich.edu or contact Woodrooffe at (734) 763-6076.