General Estimates System Coding Manual 1995

NHTSA · 1995 · ROSA P / FHWA/NHTSA National Crash Analysis Center

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This document is the 2005 edition of the General Estimates System (GES) Coding and Editing Manual, published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). It serves as a technical reference for standardizing the data entry, coding, and editing of crash data collected through the National Automotive Sampling System. The manual provides detailed instructions for translating raw police accident reports (PARs) into structured database variables, ensuring consistency and quality control within the GES database. The text outlines specific updates for the 2005 edition, most notably the addition of variables to capture data on parked or working vehicles involved in crashes. New fields include vehicle identification, make, model, body type, and hazardous materials status for these non-moving vehicles. The manual also introduces variables for alcohol and drug testing given to drivers and non-motorists, and modifies decision rules for coding roadway alignment. The document is organized by data entry order, covering crash configuration, environmental conditions, vehicle characteristics, occupant details, and driver information. It provides precise coding rules for each variable, such as determining crash dates when only time ranges are reported, or inferring time of day based on light conditions when AM/PM indicators are missing. The manual defines the structure for various data domains, including crash events, vehicle damage, pre-crash maneuvers, and injury severity. It includes extensive consistency checks to identify logical errors, such as flagging atmospheric conditions that contradict the date or time of the crash. Specific sections address complex scenarios, such as crash typing for pedestrians and bicyclists, which involves categorizing accidents based on approach paths and specific circumstances. The text also details the coding of one-to-many variables, such as multiple contributing factors or violations charged to a single driver, and provides mappings for Oracle and SAS database names. The significance of this manual lies in its role as the authoritative guide for maintaining the integrity of the GES database, a critical resource for traffic safety research. By standardizing how crash data is coded, the manual ensures that researchers can reliably analyze trends in vehicle safety, driver behavior, and crash causation. The 2005 updates reflect an evolving understanding of crash dynamics, particularly regarding the role of parked vehicles and the need for more granular data on substance involvement and hazardous materials. This systematic approach allows for the production of high-quality, comparable crash data across different jurisdictions and time periods.

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 (48 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-15; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• crash typology
• naturalistic crash near crash
• motorcycle crash typology
• vru crash typology
• incidence prevalence
• pre crash contributing factors

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource