State of the Practice of Crash Reporting in the U.S. and Implications for CAV Safety Assessment
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Summary
This study evaluates the current state of crash reporting practices for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) across the United States, addressing the critical need for standardized data collection to ensure safe CAV deployment. As CAV market penetration increases, transportation agencies face challenges in assessing safety performance due to inconsistent reporting methods and a lack of uniform legislative guidance. The research was motivated by the observation that existing safety evaluations rely heavily on simulations rather than real-world crash data, and that significant variations in how states record CAV involvement complicate cross-jurisdictional analysis. The researchers employed a mixed-methods approach, conducting a comprehensive review of state-level legislation and a survey of state transportation officials. The legislative review analyzed 514 state bills up through 2022 to identify trends in CAV regulation, definitions, and crash reporting policies. The survey assessed current practices, automation level recording methods, and plans for updating crash report forms among state agencies. The study categorized states based on whether they had established CAV crash reporting practices or lacked standard protocols. Findings revealed significant inconsistencies in CAV crash reporting across the U.S. Only nine states had established specific practices for reporting CAV crashes, while 25 states lacked standard procedures. Among those with practices, methods for recording automation levels and engagement during crashes varied widely. The legislative review indicated that existing laws primarily focus on CAV definitions, testing, and deployment rather than crash reporting policies. Furthermore, current National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reporting requirements were found to be limited, with many potential crashes unreported due to a lack of knowledge among investigating personnel and insufficient mandates for manufacturers. The study concludes that standardization is essential for accurate safety assessment and public confidence. Recommendations include developing standardized crash report forms with specific fields for CAV involvement and automation levels, mandating crash reporting by operators and manufacturers, and enhancing NHTSA requirements to include data on miles traveled and system engagement. The authors also advocate for education and training programs for first responders and transportation officials to improve data quality. Collaborative efforts among state agencies, industry stakeholders, and academic institutions are identified as crucial for developing comprehensive reporting practices that support the safe integration of CAVs into modern transportation systems.
Key finding
There are significant variations and gaps in CAV crash reporting practices across U.S. states, with most jurisdictions lacking standardized methods for recording automation levels and CAV involvement during crashes.
Methodology
mixed_methods
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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Information type
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- Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
- Methodological Resource: dataset resource
- Synthesis & Review: research agenda