State Highway Safety Report (2021) - Delaware - State - Reporting - Transportation Performance Management

State Highway Safety Report (2021) - Delaware

The following provides a summary of the Highway Safety Improvement Program's (HSIP) safety performance measures and State safety performance targets. As per the Safety PM Final Rule, States are required to set annual safety performance targets in the HSIP annual report for the number of fatalities, rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), number of serious injuries, rate of serious injures per 100 million VMT, and number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries. The safety performance targets are based on 5-year rolling averages. States have the flexibility to use the methodology they deem most appropriate when establishing safety performance targets. FHWA encourages States to review data sets and trends and consider factors that may affect targets. The safety performance targets should be data-driven, realistic, and attainable and should align with the performance management framework and legislative intent.

A State Department of Transportation (DOT) has met or made significant progress towards meeting its safety performance targets when at least four of the five safety performance targets established under 23 CFR 490.209(a) have been met or the actual outcome is better than the baseline performance. The baseline performance is the 5-year average ending with the year prior to the establishment of the target.

The Basis for Target and Additional Comments are provided by the State in their HSIP Annual Report and have not been edited by FHWA. Any questions about individual State reports should be directed to the respective State DOT. For additional information about each State's HSIP, the complete reports are available at https://highways.dot.gov/safety/hsip/reporting.

More information and resources on Safety Performance Management are available at https://highways.dot.gov/safety/hsip/spm/safety-performance-management-safety-pm-overview.

All State data used to populate the State Highway Safety Reports for 2021 are available for download at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/tpm_dashboard_data.zip.

Number of Fatalities

Number of Fatalities	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Annual	131	119	119	111	132	116	136
5-Year Average					122.4	119.4	122.8
Target (5-Year Average)							112.4	111.8	108.2

Basis for Number of Fatalities Target
During 2015, DelDOT, OHS, DSP, and other statewide safety partners collaborated in the development of the 2015 Delaware Strategic Highway Safety Plan: Toward Zero Deaths, which provides a framework to reduce fatalities and serious injuries resulting from crashes on Delaware’s roadways. The 2015 SHSP established a multi-year overall goal which includes annual target reductions. In 2017, DelDOT and OHS performed extensive data and trendline analyses to identify potential methodologies for establishing Delaware’s 2018 SPM targets and met with FHWA and NHTSA representatives to review the data and establish the 2018 SPM targets. At that time, DelDOT and OHS agreed to use the annual target reductions included in Delaware’s 2015 SHSP overall goal as the basis for developing Delaware’s 2018 SPM targets. In 2018 and 2019, DelDOT, OHS, and DSP reconvened to establish Delaware’s SPM targets and agreed to follow the 2018 SPM target setting methodology for the 2019 and 2020 SPM targets. In 2020, the three agencies coordinated to set 2021 SPM targets and agreed to follow the established target setting methodology for the serious injury targets (SPM 3 and 4) while maintaining the targets established in 2020 for the fatality and non-motorized crash targets (SPM 1, 2, and 5) for 2021. Since SPM target setting began in 2017, CY2019 marked the first year that the number of fatalities increased compared to the prior year – a trend inconsistent with the State’s goals. Maintaining the prior year’s targets for SPM 1, 2 and 5 ensures the establishment of aggressive targets while not establishing unachievable targets.

During 2020, DelDOT and OHS and other statewide safety partners (including FHWA and NHTSA) collaborated to develop the 2021-2025 Delaware Strategic Highway Safety Plan: Toward Zero Deaths (2021-2025 SHSP), which provides a framework to reduce fatalities and serious injuries resulting from crashes on Delaware's roadways. As part of the plan's development, several trendlines were reviewed to establish an aggressive, yet achievable, overall objective. Through a comparison of these trendlines, the reduction of combined fatalities and serious injuries ranged from 2.6 to 4.4 percent annually or 12 to 20 percent over five years. Based on these historic trends, the 2021-2025 SHSP established a five-year overall objective to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by 15 percent (a 3.2 percent annual reduction) as measured from the 2015-2019 five-year rolling average. In Spring 2021, DelDOT and OHS met to set Delaware's 2022 safety performance measure targets and agreed to align the annual SPM targets with the 2021-2025 SHSP's five-year overall objective. The objectives outlined in the 2021-2025 SHSP are frequency- based using five-year rolling averages; therefore, 2022 SPM targets 1, 3, and 5 were calculated using projections based on the 2021-2025 SHSP's objective to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by 15 percent over 5 years. Projected fatality and serious injury numbers were combined with projected vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to calculate the two rate-based SPM targets (i.e., 2 and 4). The table below shows the historical performance for 2016 to 2020, 2020 Baseline, 2022 Targets, and the CY2021 and CY2022 average values required to match the 2020 Baseline and 2022 Targets. FWHA determines a state has met or made significant progress when actual performance matches the established target or is better than the baseline for at least four of the five SPM targets.

During 2020, DelDOT and OHS and other statewide safety partners (including FHWA and NHTSA) collaborated to develop the 2021-2025 Delaware Strategic Highway Safety Plan: Toward Zero Deaths (2021-2025 SHSP), which provides a framework to reduce fatalities and serious injuries resulting from crashes on Delaware roadways. As part of the plan development, several trendlines were reviewed to establish an aggressive, yet achievable, overall objective. Through a comparison of these trendlines, the reduction of combined fatalities and serious injuries ranged from 2.6 to 4.4 percent annually or 12 to 20 percent over five years. Based on these historic trends, the 2021-2025 SHSP established a five-year overall objective to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by 15 percent (a 3.2 percent annual reduction) as measured from the 2015-2019 five-year rolling average.
In Spring 2022, DelDOT and OHS coordinated to set Delaware 2023 safety performance measure targets and agreed to align the annual SPM targets with the 2021-2025 SHSP five-year overall objective. The objectives outlined in the 2021-2025 SHSP are frequency-based using five-year rolling averages; therefore, 2023 SPM targets 1, 3, and 5 were calculated using projections based on the 2021-2025 SHSP objective to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by 15 percent over 5 years. Projected fatality and serious injury numbers were combined with projected vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to calculate the two rate-based SPM targets (i.e., 2 and 4). The table below shows the historical performance for 2017 to 2021, 2021 Baseline, 2023 Targets, and the CY2022 and CY2023 average values required to match the 2021 Baseline and 2023 Targets. FWHA determines a state has met or made significant progress when actual performance matches the established target or is better than the baseline for at least four of the five SPM targets.
Data Sources:
Fatalities: 2015-2020 Final FARS, 2021 FARS Annual Report File
Targets: 2020-2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Reports

Fatality Rate (per 100 million VMT)

Fatality Rate (per 100 million VMT)	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Annual	1.32	1.17	1.14	1.09	1.29	1.39	1.34
5-Year Average					1.202	1.216	1.250
Target (5-Year Average)							1.134	1.074	1.108

Basis for Fatality Rate Target
See response for number of fatalities.

See Number of Fatalities response.

See description under Number of Fatalities.
Data Sources:
Fatalities: 2015-2020 Final FARS, 2021 FARS Annual Report File
VMT: 2015-2021 FHWA Highway Statistics Series, VM-2 Table
Targets: 2020-2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Reports

Number of Serious Injuries

Number of Serious Injuries	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Annual	567	593	477	377	402	447	558
5-Year Average					483.2	459.2	452.2
Target (5-Year Average)							379.0	438.3	424.3

Basis for Number of Serious Injuries Target
See response for number of fatalities.

See Number of Fatalities response.

See description under Number of Fatalities.
Data Sources:
Serious Injuries: 2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Report
Targets: 2020-2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Reports

Rate of Serious Injuries (per 100 million VMT)

Rate of Serious Injuries (per 100 million VMT)	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Annual	5.71	5.83	4.56	3.70	3.92	5.36	5.50
5-Year Average					4.744	4.674	4.608
Target (5-Year Average)							3.962	4.212	4.350

Basis for Serious Injury Rate Target
See response for number of fatalities.

See Number of Fatalities response.

See description under Number of Fatalities.
Data Sources:
Serious Injuries: 2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Report
VMT: 2015-2021 FHWA Highway Statistics Series, VM-2 Table
Targets: 2020-2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Reports

Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries

Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Annual	101	93	79	93	104	95	113
5-Year Average					94.0	92.8	96.8
Target (5-Year Average)							89.0	85.1	82.4

Basis for Number of Non-Motorized Fatalities and Serious Injuries Target
See response for number of fatalities.

See Number of Fatalities response.

See description under Number of Fatalities.
Data Sources:
Fatalities: 2015-2020 Final FARS, 2021 FARS Annual Report File
Serious Injuries: 2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Report
Targets: 2020-2022 Delaware HSIP Annual Reports

Additional Comments

N/A

Safety Performance Target Assessment

PLEASE NOTE: Each State’s safety performance target assessment is based on its own State-specific target methodology and program philosophy. Therefore, conclusions should not be drawn based only on the information in the Safety Performance Target Assessment Summary table. For example, the State may have set aggressive targets, and not met those targets, while another State may have set more easily attainable targets, and met those targets. FHWA understands that each State’s safety program is unique and therefore does not prescribe a methodology for States to set targets. States have the flexibility to use the methodology they deem most appropriate when setting their safety performance targets.

Delaware 2021 Safety Performance Target Assessment
Performance Measure	2017-2021 Target	2017-2021 Actual	2015-2019 Baseline	Met Target?	Better Than Baseline?	Met or Made Significant Progress?
Number of Fatalities	112.4	122.8	122.4	No	No	No
Rate of Fatalities	1.134	1.250	1.202	No	No
Number of Serious Injuries	379.0	452.2	483.2	No	Yes
Rate of Serious Injuries	3.962	4.608	4.744	No	Yes
Number of non-motorized fatalities and non-motorized serious injuries	89.0	96.8	94.0	No	No

Transportation Performance Management