University of Wisconsin’s Traffic Operations and Safety Lab and local news website, Channel3000, have partnered to create an interactive map that plots the sites of fatal car accidents statewide.

A backend system collects the data and ultimately populates the map on Channel3000, Steven Parker, TOPS program manager, said. This backend system was developed in order to aid county traffic safety commissions that meet on a quarterly basis to review all crashes from the previous quarter, he said.

“The database of fatality crashes was meant to provide more complete and timely information for those purposes,” Parker said. “Channel3000 then approached the TOPS lab and was interested in linking to this database as a public service and education piece.”

This interactive map is also a way to broaden the audience that is able to access information on fatal car accident sites statewide, Parker said.

The interactive map expands on the original idea of providing a public forum where the community can meet with transportation professionals to work together to solve traffic safety problems, Parker said, adding it all depends on public involvement.

Previously this information was not available to the public and TOPS got requests from the public almost everyday to see crash data, Parker said.

The map also reflects a shift in attitude among state officials and traffic researchers, David Noyce, TOPS director, said.

“We used to be quite guarded about how safety data got out and when it got out, and now we’ve gone through a complete 180 about being completely forthright and open,” Noyce said.

Because this is a statewide map, it is hard to say what the implications for UW’s campus might be. It tends to lend a county perspective and, when all the counties combine, may form a statewide perspective, Parker said.

There are other sources of data that provide more detail in terms of crashes that occur on campus, Parker said. But the Channel3000 map has broader implications as the focus, he said.

“Within a campus, since the primary focus is on fatality crashes, we would hope that those would be very low,” Parker said. “Actually, the goal is zero in Wisconsin. So it’s hard to say at that level, how much you can draw from the map itself.”

The goal in Wisconsin is for zero traffic accidents to result in a fatality, and it is an ongoing process, Parker said.

Enforcement of traffic laws, education and road engineering are all parts of this process as well.

“Everything we do is really towards that goal,” Parker said. “Certainly providing more information, better information, about crashes and involving the public in that process are one very important way to get there.”

This database is of great importance for research as well, Parker said. Knowing where crashes happen and having the ability to look at trends over time is very important both for research and for an analysis point of view, he said.

The TOPS lab runs a large safety program maintained in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

“We look at all aspects of traffic safety, often bringing in additional information,” Parker said. “Aside from crashes, we look at characteristics of the roadway, weather, traffic volumes, other types of incidents that have happened around a crash, work zones and so on.”