PVD Crash Data - Providence Streets Coalition

Every crash in Providence is a preventable incident that impacts our community, friends, and families. In the spring of 2023, a group of PVD resident volunteers began working on an interactive Crash Map. Our aim was to bring a data-driven approach to the grassroots street safety effort. We requested state-wide crash data from RIDOT and were turned away. Thankfully the Providence Police Department supported our effort and fulfilled a city-wide crash data request. The data presented below are sourced from the Providence Police Department – they only represent crashes that were reported to police. Please keep in mind there are many more crashes that occur in the city and go unreported.

Crash Locations

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Crashes By Year

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Crash Counts By Neighborhood

Crash Counts by Providence Neighborhoods, 2010 through 2024In any given year downtown typically sees the most crashes; however this pattern is beginning to change

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Crash Counts By Census Block

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Crashes By Day

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Crashes By Ward

Crash Counts by Providence Wards, 2010 through 2024Ward 1 typically sees the most crashes in any given year

Data Notes

The visualizations above contain data from 2010 through the most recently completed calendar year. At the beginning of each calendar year, volunteers will request the latest batch of crash data from the city and refresh the visuals above. While we’ve taken many measures to improve and quality-check the raw records, the data remain imperfect. Here are a few caveats to keep in mind:

Many crashes, even those that cause serious injury, are never reported to police. Unreported crashes are not included in the charts above.
Fatalities may be slightly underreported. If an individual passes away after the police report was filed, this crash will not be recorded or presented as a fatality.
Some coordinates are not 100% accurate. Coordinates are collected at the scene of the crash by the police. Occasionally, the coordinates conflict with other information in the data record (e.g. streets and intersections). We’ve put a lot of work into cleaning the coordinates to ensure they are presented as accurately as possible given imperfect source data – we feel pretty good about the results!
If you’ve been involved in a crash, and your dot is not located in the proper location, help us fix it! Email PVD Streets with your police report number and the precise coordinates of your crash.

Crash Map Contributors

Derek Wietsma
Jeremey Herbert
Jamie Pahigian
A very special thanks to the Providence Police Department

Data Access

Data and details are available at our github repo. We’re already working on new safe street data projects. If you’re interested in this type of work and want to help out, join the PVD Streets Slack and introduce yourself!