The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Has Updated Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released the 6th edition of its Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Changes in this 6th edition include:

• Data elements that were previously meant to be derived from other data systems were removed. Instead, the MMUCC now recommends linkages to existing data elements from other national data standards.
• The MMUCC is now aligned with the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS), a national effort to standardize the data collected by emergency medical services (EMS) agencies.
• The MMUCC now incorporates NEMSIS’ Universally Unique Identifiers, which can serve as key linkages between crash data systems and injury surveillance data systems. This data element is important to trace people receiving medical attention at the scene of the crash through the health care system and facilitate linkage of crash data with EMS data, including NEMSIS.

Why this is important

Although all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories collect data about motor vehicle traffic crashes (e.g., the characteristics of the events, vehicles and people involved in the crash), there are significant differences in the way that data is reported.

The MMUCC establishes a common language for reporting in the traffic safety community.