Federal data guide
US Safety Data
A guide to the federal datasets behind US safety regulation — the workplace inspections and injuries, the vehicle recalls and crash deaths, the aircraft accidents and airworthiness orders, and the railroad incidents. Each links to a full deep-dive, and the cross-dataset analyses trace a hazard from first signal to fix.
Safety in the United States is regulated industry by industry, and each regulator leaves a public trail of inspections, incidents, and enforcement. OSHA and MSHA cover workplaces and mines; NHTSA covers road vehicles; the FAA and NTSB cover aviation; and the FRA covers railroads. The pattern repeats across modes — a hazard surfaces in complaints or accidents, an investigation follows, and a recall or directive orders the fix — which is exactly what the cross-dataset pipelines below reconstruct. The guides group the deep-dives by mode.
Workplace & mine safety (OSHA, MSHA)
Inspections, citations, and injuries at worksites and mines.
- Workplace safety violations: using OSHA inspection and citation data to find dangerous employers — OSHA inspections and citations
- OSHA Violations Database: The Federal Record of 200,000 Annual Workplace Safety Citations — every workplace citation
- OSHA Severe Injury Reports: The Federal Record of Amputations and Hospitalizations Since 2015 — severe-injury reports
- OSHA 300A Injury and Illness Data: The Federal Database Behind Establishment-Level Workplace Injury Rates — establishment injury rates
- MSHA Mine Safety Data: Violations, Accidents, and Fatalities Across 10,000 Active Mines — mine safety overall
- MSHA Violations: The Federal Record of Every Citation Written at a US Mine — every mine citation
Vehicle safety (NHTSA)
The road-vehicle defect lifecycle, from complaint to crash death.
- NHTSA Vehicle Safety Complaints: The Federal Database Behind Auto Defect Investigations and Recalls — owner complaints
- NHTSA Defect Investigations: The Federal Record of What Leads to a Recall — ODI defect investigations
- NHTSA Vehicle Recall Data: 70 Years of Safety Defects Across 900 Million Vehicles — every vehicle recall
- NHTSA Recall Completion: The Federal Record of Whether Recalled Cars Actually Get Fixed — do recalls get fixed
- Every US traffic death since 1975: using NHTSA FARS to analyze road safety, vehicle defects, and enforcement gaps — every traffic death since 1975
Aviation safety (FAA, NTSB)
Accidents, the registry, and mandatory fixes.
- NTSB Aviation Accident Database: The Federal Record Behind Every US Aircraft Accident Investigation — accident investigations
- FAA Aviation Safety Data: The Federal Databases Behind Every Plane Crash Investigation — the FAA safety databases
- FAA Airworthiness Directives: The Federal Record of Mandatory Aircraft Safety Fixes — mandatory aircraft fixes
- FAA Civil Aviation Registry: The Federal Database Behind 700,000 Pilots and 300,000 Aircraft — pilots and aircraft
Rail safety (FRA)
Railroad incidents and the crossings where they happen.
- FRA Rail Accidents: The Federal Record of Every Reportable US Railroad Incident — every reportable rail incident
- FRA Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Inventory: The Federal Database Behind 250,000 Railroad Crossings — the grade-crossing inventory
Cross-dataset analyses
Synthesis guides that trace a hazard end to end.
- The Vehicle Safety Pipeline: From Owner Complaint to Recall to the Death Toll — complaint → recall → fatalities
- The Aviation Safety Pipeline: From NTSB Accident to FAA Airworthiness Directive — accident → mandatory fix → fleet
- The Worker Safety Record: Joining OSHA Inspections, Citations, and Injuries — inspections → citations → injuries
More guides at Federal data guides, or browse all writing and the full dataset catalog.