The national accident sampling system general estimates system (GES) is operated by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, an office within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Research and Development. GES is a probability sample of approximately 45,000 motor vehicle police traffic accident reports selected on an annual basis. This technical note explains how estimates are derived from GES data and how reliable those estimates are. The set of crashes described by GES estimates, the sample selection procedures, the estimation procedure, and the reliability of the estimates in terms of sampling and nonsampling error are discussed.

This report presents estimates of selected national characteristics about the estimated 6,462,000 police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes that occurred in the United States in 1990. While the data presented are not intended to be an exhaustive look at every aspect of crashes, they are an overview of many of the factors involved in the Nation's crashes.