[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 135 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32757-32758]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-14916]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[U.S. DOT Docket No. NHTSA-2016-0038]


Reports, Forms, and Record Keeping Requirements

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Request for public comment on proposed collection of 
information.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 
notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) 
abstracted below will be submitted to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for review. The ICR describes the nature of the 
information collection and its expected burden.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 15, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT Docket ID Number 
NHTSA-2016-0038 using any of the following methods:
    Electronic submissions: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow 
the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
    Mail: Docket Management Facility, M-30, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590.
    Hand Delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays. Fax: 1-(202) 493-2251.
    Instructions: Each submission must include the Agency name and the 
Docket number for this Notice. Note that all comments received will be 
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov including any 
personal information provided.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amy Berning, Research Psychologist, 
NHTSA-NPD-130, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., W44-237, Washington, DC 
20590. Ms. Berning's phone number is 202-366-5587 and her email address 
is [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Title: Crash Risk Associated with Drug and Alcohol Use by Drivers 
in Fatal and Serious Injury Crashes.
    Form No.:
    Type of Review: Regular.
    Respondents: Participants will include seriously or fatally injured 
crash-involved drivers (n = 2,500) and matched non-crash-involved 
drivers (n = 5,000). Crash-involved drivers will include seriously 
injured drivers who are transported to a trauma center by emergency 
medical services and fatally injured drivers who are transported 
directly to the medical examiner's office. Sampling will occur at three 
trauma centers and within the roadway catchment area served by the 
trauma center(s). Non-crash-involved drivers will be matched to injured 
drivers on crash day of the week, crash time of day, and crash 
direction of travel.
    Estimated Time per Participant: Surveys will be administered to 
injured patients capable of responding and control participants to 
collect demographic information, trip information, self-reported drug/
alcohol use, and opinions about driving while using alcohol/drugs. 
Control participants will also be asked to provide a preliminary breath 
test (PBT) sample. The expected average completion time for the survey, 
and PBT sample for controls, is 10 minutes. Data collection will 
include biological samples (i.e., blood) provided by both crash-
involved and non-crash-involved drivers. Collection of the biological 
sample is expected to take approximately 10 minutes for control 
participants and less than 1 minute for seriously/fatally injured 
drivers. The total estimated time per participant is approximately 20 
minutes.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 1,250 hours per year; for a 
total of 2,500 across two years.
    Frequency of Collection: Each participant will only respond to the 
survey and biological sample requests a single time during the study 
period.
    Abstract: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 
(NHTSA) seeks to examine the risk of being severely injured in a motor 
vehicle crash when drivers use licit and illicit drugs. This effort 
will involve studying seriously or fatally injured drivers in crashes 
and matched non-crash-involved drivers. Participants will include 
seriously injured drivers who are transported to a trauma center by 
emergency medical services and fatally injured drivers transported 
directly to the medical examiner's office. This study will employ a 
case-control design that matches two drivers not involved in a crash 
for every crash-involved driver. Control drivers will be selected at or 
near the location of the crash where a driver was seriously injured or 
killed. Researchers will match control drivers on crash day of the 
week, crash time of day, and crash direction of travel. Data collection 
will include a biological sample (i.e., blood) from both crash-involved 
and control drivers. Collection of samples from seriously injured 
drivers will be subject to State and Trauma Center policies regarding 
collection of fluid samples for research purposes. Samples from fatally 
injured drivers will be collected in accord with State, Trauma Center, 
and/or coroner/medical examiner policies. Self-report surveys will be 
administered to injured patients capable of responding and control 
participants to collect demographic information, reason for driving 
trip, self-reported drug/alcohol use, and opinions about driving while 
using alcohol/drugs. In the event a seriously injured driver is 
unconscious, the researcher will, if the driver is capable of 
responding, return later to collect the information. All participating 
control drivers will be asked to respond to the survey items, provide a 
preliminary breath test sample, and provide a biological sample.
    Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the 
Information: NHTSA's mission is to save lives, prevent injuries and 
reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs. The agency 
develops, promotes and implements educational, engineering and 
enforcement programs with the goal of ending preventable tragedies and 
reducing economic costs associated with vehicle use and

[[Page 32758]]

highway travel. In 2010 and 2011, NHTSA conducted the first large-scale 
carefully controlled study in the U.S. designed to estimate the 
relative crash risk associated with drug use by drivers. Using a case-
control design, researchers collected information from crash-involved 
and non-crash involved drivers in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That effort 
focused on acquiring data at crash sites and resulted in very few 
seriously or fatally injured drivers entering the sample. As such, it 
was not possible to assess the relationship between drug use and 
serious crashes. Other studies have examined the prevalence of drugs in 
seriously and fatally injured drivers, but none has used a case-control 
design such as the one proposed in the current study that will allow 
for an estimation of risk associated with drug use by drivers seriously 
injured or killed in a motor vehicle crash. Using the case-control 
approach in this manner will complete the relative risk assessment for 
the full range of injury severities using comparable methodologies.
    The large sample of seriously and fatally injured drivers gathered 
by this project using a case-control methodology will lead to a better 
understanding of the relative crash risk of drug involved driving. The 
results of this project will assist NHTSA in determining how different 
drug classes are related to driver safety which will help the Agency 
provide guidance to the States and Federal Government as each considers 
policies related to drugged driving.

    Authority: 44 U.S.C. Section 3506(c)(2)(A).

    Issued in Washington, DC, on July 7, 2017.
Jeff Michael,
Associate Administrator, Research and Program Development.
[FR Doc. 2017-14916 Filed 7-14-17; 8:45 am]
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