WASHINGTON — Raw data on accidents, injuries and vehicle or property damage will now be made available online to the general public on a Web site set up by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency has been collecting data from automakers since 2003 but previously used it as potential fodder for investigations without making the information public.Collecting this raw information was mandated by Congress after the Firestone tire tread-separation debacle. NHTSA notes that this previously confidential information, which it calls Early Warning Reporting or EWR, is made up of 'requests or demands for relief related to a crash, the failure of a component or system, or a fire originating in or from a vehicle' and that they are 'unverified allegations.... In and of themselves the claims are not evidence of a defect.'The new search engine is accessible through NHTSA's Safercar.gov Web site. It lets consumers search for reports by manufacturer, vehicle category and reporting period and gives results down to the state, number of injuries and factors involved such as, for example, 'speed control,' 'rollover' or 'seats.' The selected results can be downloaded and saved.NHTSA says it has used this data in 84 investigations, 25 of which were launched 'because of EWR data alone.' The database will be updated quarterly, NHTSA says.What this means to you: Could be useful and in some cases could be more information than the general public can effectively use. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent