[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 19, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7495-7498]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-4063]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Discretionary Cooperative Agreements to Support the Air Bag 
Safety Campaign

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Announcement of discretionary cooperative agreements to support 
the Air Bag Safety Campaign.

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SUMMARY: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 
announces the availability of FY 1997 discretionary cooperative 
agreements to support the Air Bag Safety Campaign. The goal of this 
campaign is to inform the public about how to maximize the lifesaving 
capabilities of air bags while minimizing the risks and to increase the 
proper use of safety belts and child safety seats. NHTSA solicits 
applications from national nonprofit organizations, having regional, 
state or local chapters, for projects under this program.

DATES: Applications must be received on or before March 21, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Applications must be submitted to the National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Contracts and Procurement 
(NAD-30), ATTN: Georgeanne Moses, 400 7th Street, S.W., Room 5301, 
Washington, D.C. 20590. All applications submitted must include a 
reference to NHTSA Cooperative Agreement Program No. DTNH-97-H-05090, 
and identify the priority program area which the application is 
submitted. Interested applicants are advised that no separate 
application package exists beyond the contents of this announcement.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
General administrative questions may be directed to Mark Kromer, Office 
of Contracts and Procurement, at (202) 366-9571. Programmatic questions 
relating to this cooperative agreement program should be directed to 
Ms. Cheryl Neverman, National Outreach Division, NHTSA, Room 5130 (NTS-
22), 400 7th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20590 (202) 366-2696.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Air bags, when combined with the use of a lap and shoulder belt, 
offer the most effective combination of protection to adults. More than 
1700 lives have been saved by air bags since the mid-1980's. As of July 
1996, about 56 million passenger cars and light trucks were equipped 
with air bags. In five years, more than 50 percent of the U.S. light 
vehicle fleet, 125 million vehicles, will have air bags. Beginning with 
model year 1998 for passenger cars and model year 1999 for light 
trucks, new vehicles will be required to have driver and passenger side 
air bags and safety belts. As vehicle fleets are being manufactured and 
sold with both driver and passenger side air bags, concerns have arisen 
about the dangers of air bags, particularly to children age 12 and 
under. Some infants, children and small stature adults have been 
injured or killed in traffic crashes by deploying air bags. In almost 
all cases to date, the occupants who died were unrestrained, 
incorrectly restrained, or positioned too close to the air bag. Since 
many people do not understand how air bags work, they fail to fully 
appreciate the threat air bags may pose to some passengers.
    Out of concern for the public's safety and the need to educate the 
public about the lifesaving benefits of air bags, a public and private 
partnership of automotive manufacturers, insurance companies, occupant 
restraint manufacturers, government agencies, health professionals, and 
child health and safety organizations was created to lead a national 
campaign--the Air Bag Safety Campaign. The privately funded Air Bag 
Safety Campaign, started in June 1996, is a two-year intensive 
education campaign whose goal is to inform the public about how to 
maximize the lifesaving capabilities of air bags, while minimizing the 
risks and to increase the proper use of safety belts and child safety 
seats. The campaign takes a three-pronged approach in conveying its 
messages to the American public:
    1. Public Education: Development of an intense media campaign to 
get the ``safety belt/air bag/kids-in-back'' message out to the public. 
The group urges people to convey to their friends and neighbors the 
importance that children ride in proper places and with proper 
restraints in vehicles.
    2. Legislation: The campaign supports states in upgrading safety 
belt and child safety seat laws in order to increase safety restraint 
use nationwide. Currently, 11 states have ``primary'' enforcement laws, 
that allow police to stop and ticket motorists who fail to wear safety 
belts. Belt use in these states is much higher than in ``secondary'' 
law states where police must ticket a motorist for another violation 
before issuing a safety belt citation.
    3. Enforcement: The campaign supports high visibility enforcement 
of safety belt and child safety seat laws. This type of enforcement has 
proven very effective in increasing safety restraint use and reducing 
crash-related injuries and fatalities.
    The campaign is basing its activities, in part, on experience over 
the past decade. This experience has shown that a combination of 
intensive public education, well-written legislation, and high 
visibility, statewide enforcement of laws will result in an immediate 
and substantial increase in public awareness and occupant protection 
use. Increased safety belt and correct child safety seat use will 
significantly reduce the number of children and adults who are injured 
during air bag deployments.
    Current issues and concerns for the Air Bag Safety Campaign can be 
summarized as follows:

[[Page 7496]]

    --Approximately 67% of motorists currently use safety belts. From 
1982 through 1994, an estimated 65,290 lives were saved by safety belts 
and more than 1.5 million moderate to critical injuries were prevented. 
If all passenger vehicle occupants over age 4 had worn safety belts, an 
additional 9,500 lives could have been saved in 1994. NHTSA's Fatal 
Accident Reporting System (FARS) data indicate that 40% of the children 
under age 5 who died in fatal motor vehicle crashes were unrestrained.
    --During pre-crash braking, an unrestrained occupant may be thrown 
against the dashboard or steering wheel in the immediate proximity of 
an air bag. Air bags inflate in less than \1/25\th of a second--faster 
than a blink of an eye. The air bag's blast of energy can severely 
injure or kill small children and drivers who are too close to the air 
bag during inflation.
    --Although vehicle and child safety seat manufacturers warn against 
placing a rear-facing child safety seat on the front seat of a vehicle 
with a passenger side air bag, at least 9 children have been killed as 
a result of deploying air bags.
    --As of January, 1997, NHTSA has identified 35 crashes where the 
deployment of the passenger side air bag resulted in fatal head or neck 
injuries to a child. Of these deaths, 9 were infants in rear-facing 
child seats. At the time of these crashes, almost all the other 
fatally-injured children were unrestrained or improperly restrained.
    --Safety belts and child safety seats have proven to be very 
effective at reducing fatalities and serious injuries as a result of 
motor vehicle crashes. Research has shown that when correctly used, 
child safety seats can reduce fatalities among children less than 5 
years of age by 71 percent. As a result, child safety seats are one of 
the most effective automotive safety innovations ever developed. This 
message must be communicated to the American public.
    Since 1981, NHTSA has worked with opinion leaders, such as 
physicians, nurses, law enforcement officers, educators, employers and 
civic groups, who have motivated people through interpersonal contacts. 
One of the most effective means of educating the public about the 
lifesaving benefits of occupant protection has been through groups that 
have strong national, State and local affiliates (i.e., the American 
Academy of Pediatrics, the Emergency Nurses Association of the PTA). 
Implementation of statewide programs, including education about the 
importance of occupant protection in crash survival and support for 
enforcement of safety belt and child safety seat use laws, relies 
heavily on the outreach efforts of organizations like these.

Objectives

    To help achieve the goals set by the Air Bag Safety Campaign, NHTSA 
seeks to establish cooperative efforts between NHTSA and qualified 
national organizations to educate their members and their customers on 
the issues related to air bag safety and proper safety belt and safety 
seat use. Despite the apparently high rate of child safety seat use, 
many of these seats are being misused and underused. Use of child 
safety seats drops off dramatically after age one. Due to incorrect use 
and nonuse, child safety seats are not saving as many lives and 
preventing as many injuries as they should. The objectives of this 
cooperative agreement program are to gain further child injury/fatality 
reductions by increasing overall use of child passenger protection 
systems, increasing correct use of child safety seats, alerting the 
public to the risk of unbuckled or incorrectly buckled occupants 
(especially children) caused by deploying air bags and enhancing 
enforcement of child passenger safety laws. The goal is not to 
duplicate the efforts of the Air Bag Safety Campaign, but to give 
national organizations an opportunity to participate in short-term 
activities to support efforts at the national level. Specific 
objectives for this cooperative agreement program will complement two 
of the Campaign's approaches: Public Education and Legislation.
    1. Public education approach: The Air Bag Safety Campaign will 
create a national focus on education and enforcement. The campaign will 
build and coordinate partnerships with law enforcement, government 
agencies, health and safety organizations, corporations and community 
groups. The intense, ongoing activity of the campaign will peak each 
year with a focused effort to educate and mobilize the nation. Outreach 
activities by public safety officials would include safety checkpoints 
in every state in the Spring of each year. Sate and local law 
enforcement agencies, with the support of governors, mayors and 
communities, will conduct these safety checkpoints--not to give tickets 
in most cases, but to give drivers the information they need to keep 
themselves and their families safe within their motor vehicles. Other 
ongoing activities--announcements in schools and churches, tray liners 
in fast food restaurants, materials in physicians' offices, corporate 
outreach to employees and customers will complement this public safety 
education and enforcement effort. A strategy of the public education 
approach is to get as much media coverage as possible. Involving key 
elected officials when conducting major events and activities will get 
the media to cover the issue and provide the information to a greater 
number of people.
    2. Legislation approach: The campaign's network of businesses, 
corporations, associations, churches, law enforcement, schools, and 
children's advocacy groups will support state and local efforts to 
upgrade occupant protection laws and provide for primary enforcement of 
safety belt laws. Other upgrades could include closing gaps in child 
protection laws and providing for driver license demerit points and 
higher fines. Nine states have been identified by the Legislative 
Coordinating Council of the Air Bag Safety Campaign for funding 
campaigns to upgrade their occupant protection laws. The Council 
proposes funding for 9 priority states: Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, 
Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and Oklahoma. The 
specific approach will be decided on a state-by-state basis. The level 
of assistance, where and how it is applied, leadership responsibility, 
and the structure of the state coalitions will be designed to fit 
specific state conditions.
    Specific Agreement Objective: The applicant shall choose to conduct 
a project complementing either or both of the approaches. The applicant 
shall draw on the above ideas and develop a proposal to extent the 
campaign to its members and to its members' customers. A proposal 
including a legislative project shall describe the planned approach in 
the 9 targeted states and any other states, and identify strategies to 
achieve the legislative proposal.

NHTSA Involvement

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Office 
of Communications and Outreach, National Organization's Division (NOD), 
will be involved in all activities undertaken as part of the 
cooperative agreement program and will:
    1. Provide a Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) 
to participate in the planning and management of the cooperative 
agreement and to coordinate activities between the organizations and 
the NOD and TSP;
    2. Provide information and technical assistance from government 
sources, within available resources and as determined appropriate by 
the COTR;

[[Page 7497]]

    3. Provide liaison to the Air Bag Safety Campaign and with other 
government and private agencies as appropriate; and
    4. Stimulate the exchange of ideas and information among 
cooperative agreement recipients through periodic meetings.

Period of Support

    Cooperative agreements may be awarded for a period of (1) year. The 
application for the funding period (12 months) should address what is 
proposed and can be accomplished during that period.
    Anticipated funding level for six FY 1997 projects will be $40,000 
each, totaling $240,000. Federal funds should be viewed as seed money 
to assist organizations in the development of traffic safety 
initiatives. Monies allocated for cooperative agreements are not 
intended to cover all of the costs that will be incurred in the process 
of completing the projects. Applicants should demonstrate a commitment 
of financial or in-kind resources to support the proposed projects.

Eligibility Requirements

    In order to be eligible to participate in this cooperative 
agreement program, a national nonprofit organization must meet the 
following requirements:
    --have an established membership structure with regional, state or 
local chapters throughout the country having a mechanism for 
disseminating and coordinating project efforts at the local level.
    --have in place a schedule of regular/National/regional or state 
conferences or conventions, and one or more communication mechanisms 
that can be used for motivating members and other constituents to 
become involved in occupant protection at the State and local levels.

Application Procedure

    Each applicant must submit one original and two copies of their 
application package to: NHTSA, Office of Contracts and Procurement 
(NAD-30), ATTN: Georgeanne Moses, 400 7th Street, S.W., Room 5301, 
Washington, D.C. 20590. Applications are due no later than 30 days 
after the appearance of this announcement in the Federal Register. Only 
complete application packages received by the due date shall be 
considered. Submission of four additional copies will expedite 
processing, but is not required. Applications must be typed on one side 
of the page only. Applications must include a reference to NHTSA 
Cooperative Agreement Program No. DTNH22-97-H-05090. The Applicant 
shall specifically identify any information in the application for 
which confidentiality is requested, in accordance with the procedures 
of 49 CFR Part 512, Confidential Business Information.

Application Contents

    The application package must be submitted with OMB Standard Form 
424 (Rev. 4-88, including 424A and 425B), Application for Federal 
Assistance, with the required information filled in and the certified 
assurances included. While the Form 424-A deals with budget 
information, and section B identifies Budget Categories, the available 
space does not permit a level of detail which is sufficient to provide 
for a meaningful evaluation of the proposed costs. A supplemental sheet 
should be provided which presents a detailed breakdown of the proposed 
costs, as well as any costs which the applicant proposes to contribute 
in support of this effort. Also included shall be a program narrative 
statement which addresses the following:

    1. A description of the project to be pursued which addresses:
a. A summary describing the organizational membership, customers and 
purpose;
b. an explanation demonstrating the need for assistance;
c. the goals, objectives, and the anticipated results and benefits of 
the project (supporting documentation from concerned interests other 
than the applicant can be used.)
d. the method or methods that will be used;
e. identify the kinds of data to be collected and maintained, and 
discusses the criteria to be used to evaluate the results.
e. any relevant data based on planning studies should be included or 
footnoted.
f. describe any unusual features, such as design or technological 
innovations, reductions in cost or time, or extraordinary social/
community involvement;

    2. Provide quantitative projections of the accomplishments to be 
achieved, if possible, or list the activities in chronological order to 
show the schedule or accomplishments and their target dates.
    3. The proposed program director and other key personnel identified 
for participation in the proposed project effort, including a 
description of their qualifications, the nature of their contribution, 
and their respective organizational responsibilities.
    4. A description of the applicant's previous experience or on-going 
program(s) that is (are) related to this proposed program effort.
    5. A detailed breakdown of the proposed costs, as well as any costs 
which the applicant proposes to contribute in support of this effort.
    6. A statement of any technical assistance which the applicant may 
require of NHTSA in order to successfully complete the proposed 
project.

Review Process and Criteria

    Initially, all applications will be reviewed to confirm that they 
contain all of the information required by the Applications Contents 
section of this notice.
    Each complete application from an eligible recipient will then be 
evaluated by a Technical Evaluation Committee. The applications will be 
evaluated and ranked using the following criteria:

1. Technical Approach to Achieving Project Objectives

    The reasonableness, completeness, clarity and feasibility of the 
proposer's approach to achieving the objectives of this demonstration 
and evaluation project. This involves a comprehensive understanding of 
the issues associated with child occupant protection, such as proper 
safety belt and child safety seat use, and the lifesaving capabilities 
of air bags, a detailing of project objectives, and an identification 
and selection of potential obstacles, problems and critical political 
issues related to successful completion of the project. The applicant's 
understanding of the purpose and unique problems represented by the 
Campaign objectives of this cooperative agreement program as evidenced 
in the description of its proposed project planning, implementation, 
and evaluation effort. The technical of the proposed effort, including 
the feasibility of the approach, practicality, planned methodology, 
anticipate results. The likelihood that the proposed effort will make a 
significant contribution to the number of people made aware of the 
lifesaving benefits of automatic crash protection and increase the 
number of people properly using safety belts and child safety seats.

2. Qualifications of Project Personnel and Facilities

    The adequacy of the qualifications and experience of the 
professional team, the various disciplines represented, and the 
relative level of effort proposed for

[[Page 7498]]

professional, technical, contractual, and support staff. The expertise, 
both general and project related, education level, and availability of 
key project professional and technical personnel as evidenced by 
resumes and descriptions of past experience provided. Demonstrated 
evidence of specialized qualifications including knowledge of the 
proper use of safety belts and child safety seats. Key personnel 
include the project director, statistician, programmer, research 
assistants, and consultants. The adequacy of the facilities, equipment, 
and other resources identified to accomplish the proposed effort.

3. Project Planning and Scheduling

    The completeness and realism of the proposer's plan for 
accomplishing the demonstration and evaluation within the guidelines 
and timeframe established in the notice. Another reasonable timeframe 
may be acceptable to the Government, but it must be justified. 
Realistic project components or milestones should be in evidence in the 
schedule.

4. Conformance with Methodological and Funding Guidelines

    The demonstration of ability and intent to meet the basic 
guidelines and restrictions detailed in the notice in the conduct of 
the project. If certain guidelines cannot be met, reasonable 
justifications are given. Financial merit will be estimated by the cost 
to be borne by NHTSA and the in-kind contribution provided by the 
applicant as compared to the anticipated benefits.

Terms and Conditions of Award

    1. Prior to award, the recipient must comply with the certification 
requirements of 49 CFR Part 29--Department of Transportation 
Government-wide Debarment and Suspension (Nonprocurement) and 
Government-wide Requirements for Drug-Free Workplace (Grants)
    2. During the effective period of the cooperative agreement(s) 
awarded as a result of this notice, the agreement(s) shall be subject 
to NHTSA's General Provisions for Assistance Agreements; the cost 
principles of OMB Circular A-122, or FAR 31.2, as applicable to the 
recipient, and the requirements of 49 CFR Part 29. Each agreement with 
a non-profit organization or an educational institution shall also be 
subject to the general administrative requirements of 49 CFR Part 19.

Reporting Requirements

    1. The recipient shall submit quarterly reports documenting project 
efforts to date, suitable for public dissemination, within 15 days 
after the end of each quarter, and a final report summarizing the 
project effort by completion of the project. An original and three 
copies of each of these reports shall be submitted to the COTR.
    2. The recipient may be requested to conduct an oral presentation 
of project activities for the COTR and other interested NHTSA 
personnel. For planning purposes, assume that these presentations will 
be conducted at the NHTSA Office of Communications and Outreach, 
Washington, D.C. An original and three copies of briefing materials 
shall be submitted to the COTR.

    Dated: February 13, 1997.
James H. Hedlund,
Associate Administrator for Traffic Safety Programs.
[FR Doc. 97-4063 Filed 2-18-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-M