This function returns a list of people involved in fatal crashes that match a specific age, sex, seat position, and injury severity using the CrashAPI GetCrashesByPerson endpoint. The returned data has one row for each person.
Arguments
- state
Required. State name, abbreviation, or FIPS number.
- age
Required. Age in years.
- sex
Required. Code or name for the person's sex: 1 ("Male"), 2 ("Female"), 8 ("Not Reported"), or 9 ("Reported as Unknown"). "m", "f", and "unknown" are also accepted.
- seat
Required. Code or name for the person's seat position, e.g. 11 or "Front Seat, Left Side" ("front left" is also accepted). Use 0 or "Not a Motor Vehicle Occupant" for non-occupants. See the FARS Analytical User's Manual for all seat position codes.
- injury
Required. Code or name for the person's injury severity: 0 ("No Apparent Injury (O)"), 1 ("Possible Injury (C)"), 2 ("Suspected Minor Injury (B)"), 3 ("Suspected Serious Injury (A)"), 4 ("Fatal Injury (K)"), 5 ("Injured, Severity Unknown"), 6 ("Died Prior to Crash"), or 9 ("Unknown/Not Reported"). Short names (e.g. "fatal") and KABCO letters (e.g. "K") are also accepted.
- year
numeric vector. One or more years from 2010 to 2024. The minimum and maximum values are used as the start and end year. Defaults to
getOption("crashapi.year", 2024).- var_labels
How to add variable labels from fars_vars_labels: "attribute" (default) adds a
"label"attribute to each column, which is shown byView()in RStudio and Positron and used by packages such as gt and gtsummary, and "none" doesn't add variable labels.
API behavior
NHTSA's documentation says this endpoint accepts "one or more" occupant
details for age, sex, seat position, and injury severity. However, testing in
October 2026 found that the API does not behave this way: the API returns an
error (HTTP 404) unless all four are provided, an error message if any are
blank, and only returns people who match all four values exactly. For this
reason, age, sex, seat, and injury are all required.
The endpoint's includeOccupants and includeNonOccupants parameters are
not supported since the required seat position already determines whether
occupants or non-occupants are returned (use seat = 0 for people who were
not motor vehicle occupants).
To find people using other criteria (e.g. a range of ages or any injury
severity), download the person table with get_fars_year() using type = "person" and filter the data.
Examples
# Fatally injured 30 year old female drivers in Maryland in 2022
get_fars_crash_persons(
state = "MD",
age = 30,
sex = "female",
seat = "front left",
injury = "fatal",
year = 2022
)
#> AGE AGENAME AIR_BAG AIR_BAGNAME ALC_DET ALC_DETNAME
#> 1 30 30 Years 99 Reported as Deployment Unknown NA NA
#> 2 30 30 Years 8 Deployed- Combination NA NA
#> ALC_RES ALC_RESNAME ALC_STATUS
#> 1 999 Reported as Unknown if Tested 9
#> 2 0 0.000 % BAC 2
#> ALC_STATUSNAME ATST_TYP ATST_TYPNAME BODY_TYP
#> 1 Reported as Unknown if Tested 99 Reported as Unknown if Tested 4
#> 2 Test Given 1 Blood 14
#> BODY_TYPNAME CERT_NO
#> 1 4-door sedan, hardtop NA
#> 2 Compact Utility (Utility Vehicle Categories "Small" and "Midsize") NA
#> COUNTY COUNTYNAME CaseYear DAY DAYNAME DEATH_DA DEATH_DANAME
#> 1 33 PRINCE GEORGE`S (33) 2022 23 23 23 23
#> 2 43 WASHINGTON (43) 2022 18 18 18 18
#> DEATH_HR DEATH_HRNAME DEATH_MN DEATH_MNNAME DEATH_MO DEATH_MONAME DEATH_TM
#> 1 7 7:00-7:59 23 23 1 January 723
#> 2 14 14:00-14:59 6 6 4 April 1406
#> DEATH_TMNAME DEATH_YR DEATH_YRNAME DEVMOTOR DEVMOTORNAME DEVTYPE DEVTYPENAME
#> 1 723 2022 2022 NA NA NA NA
#> 2 1406 2022 2022 NA NA NA NA
#> DOA DOANAME DRINKING DRINKINGNAME DRUGRES1 DRUGRES1NAME
#> 1 0 Not Applicable 8 Not Reported NA NA
#> 2 7 Died at Scene 0 No (Alcohol Not Involved) NA NA
#> DRUGRES2 DRUGRES2NAME DRUGRES3 DRUGRES3NAME DRUGS DRUGSNAME
#> 1 NA NA NA NA 8 Not Reported
#> 2 NA NA NA NA 0 No (drugs not involved)
#> DRUGTST1 DRUGTST1NAME DRUGTST2 DRUGTST2NAME DRUGTST3 DRUGTST3NAME DRUG_DET
#> 1 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
#> 2 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
#> DRUG_DETNAME DSTATUS DSTATUSNAME EJECTION EJECTIONNAME
#> 1 NA 9 Reported as Unknown if Tested 0 Not Ejected
#> 2 NA 2 Test Given 0 Not Ejected
#> EJ_PATH EJ_PATHNAME EMER_USE EMER_USENAME EXTRICAT
#> 1 0 Ejection Path Not Applicable 0 Not Applicable 9
#> 2 0 Ejection Path Not Applicable 0 Not Applicable 9
#> EXTRICATNAME FIRE_EXP FIRE_EXPNAME FUNC_SYS FUNC_SYSNAME
#> 1 Unknown 1 Yes 3 Principal Arterial - Other
#> 2 Unknown 0 No or Not Reported 1 Interstate
#> GVWR_FROM GVWR_FROMNAME GVWR_TO
#> 1 11 Class 1: 6,000 lbs. or less (2,722 kg or less) 11
#> 2 11 Class 1: 6,000 lbs. or less (2,722 kg or less) 11
#> GVWR_TONAME HARM_EV
#> 1 Class 1: 6,000 lbs. or less (2,722 kg or less) 59
#> 2 Class 1: 6,000 lbs. or less (2,722 kg or less) 12
#> HARM_EVNAME HELM_MIS HELM_MISNAME HELM_USE
#> 1 Traffic Sign Support 7 None Used/Not Applicable 20
#> 2 Motor Vehicle In-Transport 7 None Used/Not Applicable 20
#> HELM_USENAME HISPANIC HISPANICNAME HOSPITAL HOSPITALNAME
#> 1 Not Applicable 7 Non-Hispanic 8 Not Reported
#> 2 Not Applicable 7 Non-Hispanic 0 Not Transported for Treatment
#> HOUR HOURNAME ICFINALBODY ICFINALBODYNAME IMPACT1 IMPACT1NAME IMPACT2
#> 1 7 7:00am-7:59am 0 Not Applicable 11 11 Clock Point NA
#> 2 13 1:00pm-1:59pm 0 Not Applicable 6 6 Clock Point NA
#> IMPACT2NAME INJ_SEV INJ_SEVNAME LAG_HRS LAG_HRSNAME LAG_MINS
#> 1 NA 4 Fatal Injury (K) 0 0 19
#> 2 NA 4 Fatal Injury (K) 0 0 17
#> LAG_MINSNAME LOCATION LOCATIONNAME MAKE MAKENAME MAK_MOD
#> 1 19 0 Occupant of a Motor Vehicle 12 Ford 12023
#> 2 17 0 Occupant of a Motor Vehicle 41 Mazda 41403
#> MAK_MODNAME MAN_COLL
#> 1 Ford Fusion 0
#> 2 Mazda CX5 1
#> MAN_COLLNAME
#> 1 The First Harmful Event was Not a Collision with a Motor Vehicle in Transport
#> 2 Front-to-Rear
#> MINUTE MINUTENAME MOD_YEAR MOD_YEARNAME MONTH MonthName N_MOT_NO OCCDrugs
#> 1 4 4 2017 2017 1 January NA NA
#> 2 49 49 2020 2020 4 April NA NA
#> PER_NO PER_TYP PER_TYPNAME P_SF1 P_SF1NAME P_SF2
#> 1 1 1 Driver of a Motor Vehicle In-Transport NA NA NA
#> 2 1 1 Driver of a Motor Vehicle In-Transport NA NA NA
#> P_SF2NAME P_SF3 P_SF3NAME PersonRFs RACE RACENAME REST_MIS
#> 1 NA NA NA NA NA NA 7
#> 2 NA NA NA NA NA NA 0
#> REST_MISNAME REST_USE REST_USENAME ROAD_FNC
#> 1 None Used/Not Applicable 20 None Used/Not Applicable NA
#> 2 No Indication of Misuse 3 Shoulder and Lap Belt Used NA
#> ROAD_FNCNAME ROLLOVER ROLLOVERNAME RUR_URB RUR_URBNAME Races SCH_BUS
#> 1 NA 0 No Rollover 2 Urban NA 0
#> 2 NA 0 No Rollover 2 Urban NA 0
#> SCH_BUSNAME SEAT_POS SEAT_POSNAME SEX SEXNAME SPEC_USE
#> 1 No 11 Front Seat, Left Side 2 Female 0
#> 2 No 11 Front Seat, Left Side 2 Female 0
#> SPEC_USENAME STATE STATENAME STR_VEH STR_VEHNAME
#> 1 No Special Use Noted 24 Maryland 0 Occupant of a Motor Vehicle
#> 2 No Special Use Noted 24 Maryland 0 Occupant of a Motor Vehicle
#> ST_CASE TOW_VEH TOW_VEHNAME VEH_NO VE_FORMS VPICBODYCLASS
#> 1 240026 0 No Trailers 1 1 13
#> 2 240122 0 No Trailers 3 4 7
#> VPICBODYCLASSNAME VPICMAKE VPICMAKENAME
#> 1 Sedan/Saloon 460 Ford
#> 2 Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV)/Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) 473 Mazda
#> VPICMODEL VPICMODELNAME WORK_INJ WORK_INJNAME
#> 1 1780 Fusion 0 No
#> 2 2369 CX-5 0 No