This document describes a project to create a searchable database and map of motor vehicle accident data in New Jersey. A team of six people merged over 3.2 million records from the NJDOT website into a single database, categorizing details like accident dates, locations, injuries and vehicle types. They aimed to make the raw data more user-friendly and identify the most accident-prone roads. The final products allow journalists and citizens to search accident statistics by town, county or the entire state to understand trends and work toward safer roads.

1. (Also known as Team Blue Smiley
Faces, the Blue Meanies, etc.)

2.  Matthew MacVay
 Patrick Murray
 Colleen O’Dea
 Igor Putilov
 Erin Roll
 Alex Schechter

3.  A searchable database, and
a map, of motor vehicle
accidents around New
Jersey, assembled using raw
data from the state
Department of
Transportation website.

4.  Where can journalists and average
citizens go to find motor vehicle
accident data about their town or
their county, as well as the state?
 On the NJDOT website, there is lots
of raw accident data.
 However, all of that data is spread
out among five sets of massive, eye-
straining Notepad text files.
 Emphasis on eye-straining.

5.  We decided to merge as much data as
we could into one database.
 We attempted to pull the most
pertinent data – accident
dates/times, locations,
deaths/injuries, driver’s conditions,
vehicle types.
 With it, we decided to create a map
showing where the most accident-prone
roads and highways were.

6.  Asked, what are people going to want
to search for first?
 Some of the tools we used, or tried
to use: Mongo, Mapbox, Google Maps,
GitHub, JSON, Kibana, Elastic Search
 Downloaded all of the Notepad text,
and converted it into CSV files in
Excel and used it to help assemble
the database.

7.  Sheer volume: The accident data file
alone contained 3.2 million records.
 The raw data available isn’t exactly
user-friendly – there are lots of
gaps and errors that need fixing.
 On accident reports, the NJSP uses
numeric codes to describe factors
like weather conditions, road hazards
and alcohol tests.
 Internet bandwidth: the system kept
slowing down at times.

8.  The hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
seem to be a bad time to be on the
roads in New Jersey; a lot of
accidents seem to happen during that
time period.
 Counties with most accidents: Bergen,
Essex and Middlesex.
 Municipalities with most accidents
include Newark, Jersey City, the
Brunswicks.

9.  Citizens: What parts of your town or
city had the most accidents during a
certain year?
 Journalists: Keep track of accident
rates, try to spot trends in accident
causes/contributing factors
 Both: Being able to understand
accident rates and causes can help us
make the roads safer.