Roadway Safety
Background
Transportation has a significant effect on public health and safety, specifically collisions which are considered to be preventable. Santa Clara County has joined a nationwide effort to reduce and eventually eliminate all fatal and serious injury collisions on our roadways, while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all users. The first step to achieving this goal is monitoring the collision rates, locations, and types.
Data Source
VTA and its Member agencies have invested in the County’s Crossroads Collision software database as a primary source for tracking and analyzing collisions. Crossroads includes data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) in addition to the non-serious collisions collected by the local police departments that might not be reported to the State. This provides a more comprehensive database tool for use by local transportation engineers, planners, and public health department staff.
Conditions
After an initial decrease in traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which resulted in changes in work schedule, mode choices, and travel patterns, traffic is now rebounding to higher levels as employees are shifting to hybrid work schedules. In general, there was a 5% increase in the number and types of collisions between 2022 and 2023:
+730 (+5%) Total Collisions
+12 (+15%) Fatal Collisions
-556 (-9%) Injury Collisions
The following graphs show the historical Fatal and Injury Collision trends from 2019 to 2023. The maps on the following pages display “hot spots” of frequent locations by type.
Figure 1. Historical Injury Collisions in Santa Clara County
Figure 2. Historical Fatal Collisions in Santa Clara County
Figure 3. Historical Total Collisions in Santa Clara County
Figure 4. 2023 All Collisions “Hot Spot” Map, Santa Clara County
Figure 5. 2023 Fatal Collisions “Hot Spot” Map, Santa Clara County
The overall number of 2023 major collision types, factors, and involved parties by agencies are presented in the following table:
Table 1. 2023 Major Collision Types, Factors, and Involved Parties per Agency
Collision types and primary collision factors (PCF)
Every collision record identifies the type of collision and a primary collision factor. This information is used to develop counter measures and strategies to mitigate these types of collisions. The following graphs show the percentages of collision by type and primary factors or causes.
Figure 6. 2023 All Collision – Collision Types
Figure 7. 2023 All Collision – Primary Collision Factor (PCF)
Acronym
DUI: Driving Under the Influence
PCF: Primary Collision Factor
RW: Right-Of-Way
Sources
The Countywide Crossroads Collision Database, maintained by Santa Clara County’s Roads and Airports Department was used to generate the collision data for this section. The data includes reports from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System and local agency police departments. The collision maps were generated using Esri ArcGIS Pro software.