It’s amazing what data will reveal to those who gather it, share it and interpret it.

A 1988 Marian Catholic High School graduate is heading up an Arlington, Virginia, organization that conducts highway safety research that does exactly that — gathers and shares statistics — with a mission of reducing human economic losses that result from operating vehicles on the nation’s highways.

Matt Moore, a Tamaqua native and the son of Randy Moore and the late Mary Moore, is the senior vice president of the Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He oversees HLDI’s research program, the collection of vehicle information and the production of loss data. The institute processes insurance data from companies that represent approximately 85 percent of the U.S. private passenger auto insurance market.

Insurance records

The line of work is cumbersome, as HLDI analyzes the insurance records of more than 400-million vehicles and in excess of three billion transactions per year.

That data is wide-ranging, including the costs of claims, average insurance losses for specific vehicles and information on insurance payments. HLDI’s research deals with everything from anti-lock brake systems, sizes of motors, types of glass in a vehicle, theft risks and rates, impact of animals (mainly deer) on vehicles, headlight mechanisms and vehicle specific data. The studies also involve tractor trailers and motorcycles.

“Professionally, my biggest challenge is Highway Loss Data Institute’s research results are sometimes the first in the world, “ Moore said. “HLDI studies are often like the canary in a coal mine. This can lead to skepticism about the findings. Consequently, we sometimes have to burn energy convincing key stakeholders the results are actionable versus taking action.

“Personally, my biggest challenge is work-related travel. In 2019, I logged over 75,000 air miles, delivering presentations on the work of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute. Keeping up with the demands of my job, my family and trying to stay physically fit while spending so much time traveling is a huge challenge. For example, my last trip before the pandemic started in 2019 was to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. That trip took almost a full 24 hours of flight time in each direct direction.”

Among HLDI’s credentials is that the institute “published the first studies in the world on the impact of advanced driver assistance systems,” Moore said.

He explained, “Those studies indicated that front automatic emergency braking systems had the biggest benefits. Those front automatic emergency barking systems reduce the occurrence of bodily injury liability crashes by over 24 percent. Ultimately, those results led to a voluntary commitment between the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and auto manufacturers to equip all vehicles with those systems by September of 2022. This commitment will prevent a lot of crashes and save a lot of lives.”

Background

Moore joined HLDI in 1999 as a programmer. During his 20 years there, he has held a variety of positions. The author of numerous research papers, he has led several projects that resulted in studies that were world firsts on topics such as collision avoidance technologies, legal recreational marijuana and anti-lock braking systems for motorcycles.

His firm’s studies on the effectiveness of collision avoidance systems has led to a voluntary commitment from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and automobile manufacturers to fit nearly all vehicles sold in the U.S. with anti-lock brake systems by 2022.

After graduation from Marian, where he played football for the Colts, Moore attended St. Francis University, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Before going to work for HLDI, he worked in higher education, conducting institutional research, designing data systems and creating websites.

Admittedly always “fascinated by technology and cars,” Moore says he gets “to work with complex data systems every day to study vehicles and vehicle related technologies.”

Until last summer, Moore’s father still lived in the home where Matt grew up in Tamaqua. “I love the area and visited often,” the Marian graduate said. “My kids grew up hiking at Hawk Mountain and climbing the Glen Onoko Falls. Their favorite place for ice cream is Heisler’s. “