Safety
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act mandates that states establish a performance- and outcome-based program for transportation decision making. Targets for five performance measures are required annually: number of fatalities, number of serious injuries, rate of fatalities, rate of serious injuries and number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries. OKI supports each individual state’s safety performance measure targets and plans and programs projects so that they contribute to accomplishing each state’s safety performance measure goals.
Fatalities
Serious Injuries
Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries
Regional Transit Safety Targets
How is Safety defined?
Performance management is a critical element in roadway safety. It is measured by the number of lost lives and serious injuries sustained on the OKI region’s roadways. The safety performance targets will help improve data, foster transparency and accountability and allow safety progress to be tracked at the regional, state and national levels. OKI uses the safety performance management framework to help identify transportation projects that will help the OKI region improve road safety.
How is the OKI region doing?
Baseline totals for calendar years 2020-2024 for number of fatalities, rate of fatalities, serious injuries, rate of serious injuries and number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries helped establish calendar year 2026 safety performance targets.
Number of Fatalities
Within the OKI region, an average of 43,904 crashes occurred each year between 2020 and 2024, accounting for an average of 179 lives and causing over 14,500 injuries. Data shows that fatalities have increased 11 percent in the OKI region since 2020. Fatalities during the five-year period peaked in Hamilton County in 2021 and 2022 with 78, while a low of three fatalities occurred in Campbell County in 2024.
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TREND
Total Fatalities 2020-2024
Rate of Fatalities per 100 MVMT
Fatality rates are calculated as the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (MVMT). This metric provides a more accurate measure of the risk of being in a fatal accident based on the number of miles traveled. In the OKI region, seven of eight counties in the region had a fatality rate above 1.0 during at least one year between 2020 and 2024. The exception was Kenton County, with a peak fatality rate of 0.80 in 2020. Over the five-year period, the average rate of fatalities for the region was 0.92, well below each state’s adopted statewide performance safety target.
TREND
Fatality Rate per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Traveled by OKI Region 2020-2024
Number of Serious Injuries
Serious injuries are those accidents where at least one individual has been incapacitated in a motor vehicle crash during a calendar year. Within the OKI region, all four Ohio counties saw an increase in serious injuries between 2020 and 2024, while the Kentucky counties and Dearborn County saw a decrease. Overall, the number of serious injuries declined 6.4 percent throughout the entire OKI region over the same time.
TREND
Total Serious Injuries 2020-2024
Serious Injury Rate per 100 MVMT
Serious injuries are measured against 100 MVMT. In the OKI region, the rate of serious injuries declined in every county, except in Butler County, between 2020 and 2024. In Dearborn County, IN, the rate of serious injuries declined 84.4 percent from a high of 24.91 in 2020. The OKI region experienced a decline of 19.8 percent in the rate of serious injuries over the five-year period.
TREND
Serious Injuries Rate 2020-2024
Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries
This metric includes all non-motorized (bicycle and pedestrian) fatalities and serious injuries involving a motor vehicle during a calendar year. Reported bicycle and pedestrian fatalities in the OKI region peaked in 2023 with 37. Bicycle deaths have been minimal, and pedestrian fatalities have totaled 33 or fewer in each year from 2020-2024.
Serious bicycle and pedestrian injuries peaked in 2022 with 124 and have averaged 116 injuries each year since 2020. Most serious injuries have involved pedestrians.
TREND
Bike & Pedestrian Fatalities and Serious Injuries 2020-2024
Regional Transit Safety Performance Targets
OKI, as required by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), established regional transit safety performance targets for the MPO region. Safety performance targets are a quantifiable measure for each public transit agency.
The following providers of public transportation in the region are required to set transit safety targets per the performance-based planning and programming (PBPP) requirements. These targets are required for each mode operated by the provider, including heavy rail, streetcar, commuter bus, metro bus (fixed route) and demand response (paratransit).
- Butler County Regional Transit Authority (BCRTA)
- City of Cincinnati (The Connector Streetcar)
- City of Middletown Transit System
- Clermont Transportation Connection (CTC)
- Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (Metro)
- Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK)
- Warren County Transit Service (WCTS)
Targets for the region are based on those adopted by each public transportation provider. Rates are calculated as occurring per 100,000 revenue miles. System reliability is based on the mean distance between major mechanical failures.