According to a USA Today analysis of federal reports, police car chases resulted in more than 11,500 deaths over the past 35 years. In the motion graphic,Police Chase Fatalities, USA Today successfully uses motion to help illustrate and analyze this data. In fact, the use of motion emphasizes that the data is not static. Motion helps emphasize how data changes over time; and as the death toll increases, animation helps demonstrates the scale of an ongoing problem.
Motion also allows us to visually dissect and break down the data, quickly identifying patterns in a very large dataset. Strategic use of color further categorizes data as it relates to police officers, suspects, bystanders and passengers. At the end of the motion graphic, users are prompted to engage in an interactive graphic that allows the user to analyze the number of deaths in every state and in major countries.