[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 83 (Friday, April 29, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25565-25567]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-09152]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2022-0030]


Agency Request for Information; State Electronic Data Collection 
Grant Program

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

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: This notice requests information from interested parties to 
assist the agency to develop and implement a new discretionary grant 
program to increase the number of States, U.S. territories, and Indian 
tribes electronically transferring their motor vehicle crash data to 
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The 
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted as the Infrastructure 
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), establishes a new program called the 
State electronic data collection program. Specifically, section 
24108(d)(2) mandates that NHTSA provide grants to States to upgrade and 
standardize their State crash data systems to enable electronic data 
collection, intrastate data sharing, and electronic data transfers to 
NHTSA to increase the accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of the 
data including data relating to fatalities involving vulnerable road 
users. Ultimately, the grants will support an increased capacity of the 
NHTSA data systems, including the Fatality Analysis Reporting System 
(FARS), the Crash Reporting Sampling System (CRSS), and the Crash 
Investigation Sampling System (CISS), and make State crash data 
accessible to the public. NHTSA seeks comments from all interested 
parties, including State crash data owners, highway safety offices, law 
enforcement, and other stakeholders to help inform NHTSA's development 
of a grant program. This grant program is to modernize State data 
collection systems and to enable full electronic data transfer. All 
comments should be submitted via docket number NHTSA-2022-0030.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 31, 2022.

[[Page 25566]]


ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted using any one of the 
following methods:
    (1) Mail: Docket Management Facility, M-30, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Rm. W12-140, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
    (2) Fax: Written comments may be faxed to (202) 493-2251.
    (3) Internet: To submit comments electronically, go to the Federal 
regulations website at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 
instructions for submitting comments.
    (4) Hand Delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 
New Jersey Avenue SE, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays. To be sure someone is there to 
help you, please call (202) 366-9322 before coming.
    (5) Instructions: All comments submitted in relation to this notice 
must include the agency name and docket number. Please note that all 
comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. You 
may also call the Docket at 202-366-9324.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Barbara Rhea, State Data Reporting 
Systems Division Chief, NHTSA (phone: 202-366-2714) or you may send an 
email to Ms. Rhea at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 24108(d) of BIL directs NHTSA to 
establish a new State electronic data collection program that requires 
NHTSA to develop and implement a new discretionary grant program. The 
new grant program is to provide support to States to upgrade and 
standardize their State crash data systems to enable electronic data 
collection, intrastate data sharing, and electronic data transfers to 
NHTSA to increase the accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of the 
data including data relating to fatalities involving vulnerable road 
users. See Public Law 117-58, 24108(d)(3). Eligible States \1\ may use 
these grants for the costs of equipment to upgrade a statewide crash 
data repository; adoption of electronic crash reporting by law 
enforcement agencies and increasing alignment of State crash data with 
the latest Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria.\2\ This notice 
requests information from interested parties, including State crash 
data owners, highway safety offices, law enforcement, and other 
stakeholders to assist NHTSA in the development of a new State 
electronic data collection program that supports State crash data 
system improvements, enhances NHTSA's National Center for Statistics 
and Analysis (NCSA) data infrastructure where these data will be 
stored, and shares a subset of the resulting data with the public. 
NHTSA plans to utilize the information provided under this Request for 
Information to enhance and support the development of the State 
electronic data collection discretionary grant program.
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    \1\ Under BIL, ``State'' is defined as each of the 50 States, 
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. 
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Northern 
Mariana Islands and the Secretary of the Interior, acting on behalf 
of an Indian Tribe. See Public Law 117-58, 24108(d)(1)(A).
    \2\ Sec.  24108(d)(3)(C).
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Background

    The Highway Safety Act of 1966, 23 U.S.C. 401, et seq., as amended, 
and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, 49 U.S.C. 30101 
et seq. as amended, both authorize NHTSA to collect and analyze motor 
vehicle crash data to, among other things, improve all aspects of 
traffic safety systems and conditions, determine the relationship 
between motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment performance 
characteristics, crashes involving motor vehicles; and deaths or 
personal injuries resulting from those crashes. NHTSA has several data 
collections that support its traffic safety mission. Several of these 
data collections are housed within NHTSA's NCSA. As part of NHTSA's 
ongoing effort to obtain crash data in a more timely, accurate and 
efficient manner, the agency has successfully implemented a streamlined 
process for collecting crash data in an electronic format, known as 
Electronic Data Transfer (EDT).
    The existing EDT protocol obtains crash data using police accident 
reports (PAR), supplemental crash reports, and crash images from 
participating State crash systems through electronic data transfer 
processes, services, and functions. Generally, this transfer occurs on 
a nightly basis once the data are accepted by each State's centralized 
database following quality control checks. NCSA uses these data to 
develop a census of the participating State's crashes. This dataset 
supports real-time decision making; reduces the burden of data 
collection; and improves data quality. NCSA uses these data to identify 
existing and emerging highway safety trends, assess the effectiveness 
of motor vehicle safety standards, and evaluate new and emerging 
technologies.
    However, only 19 States participate in the existing EDT protocol 
and data obtained through these processes vary in completeness from 
State-to-State. The BIL State electronic data collection program 
intends to increase the number of participating States and enhance the 
robustness of the data through standardization and the modernization of 
its systems. BIL Section 24108(d) establishes a State electronic data 
collection program that consists of two components. The first 
component, and the subject of this request for information, is a new 
discretionary grant program that provides grants to States for the 
modernization of State data collection systems to enable full 
electronic data transfer. Public Law 117-58, 24108(d)(2)(A). The second 
component is for NHTSA to update its data collection systems to manage 
and support State electronic data transfers. Public Law 117-58, 
24108(d)(2)(B). The purpose of the grants under the State electronic 
data collection program is to upgrade and standardize State crash data 
systems to enable electronic data collection, improve intrastate data 
sharing and electronic data transfers to NHTSA to increase the 
accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of the data, including data 
relating to fatalities involving vulnerable road users. Public Law 117-
58, 24108(d)(3)(A). To be eligible for a grant, a State must submit a 
plan to implement full electronic data transfer to NHTSA and provide 
any other information as NHTSA may require Public Law 117-58, 
24108(d)(3)(B). A State may use grant funds to: (i) Acquire or upgrade 
equipment for the statewide crash data repository; (ii) adopt 
electronic crash reporting by law enforcement agencies; and (iii) 
increase alignment of State crash data with the latest Model Minimum 
Uniform Crash Criteria. Public Law 117-58, 24108(d)(3)(C).
    NHTSA's vision of the BIL State electronic data collection program 
is to support States that create centralized crash data systems to 
transfer uniform crash data to NHTSA. The uniformity of the crash data 
will align to the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) 
Guideline. States currently submitting electronic data to NHTSA will be 
eligible for the State electronic data collection grants to modernize 
their systems and standardize their data consistent with this new 
program. NHTSA further envisions that States participating in the State 
electronic data collection program will have crash data collected 
electronically in the field by all law enforcement agencies and 
jurisdictions using a uniform, efficient

[[Page 25567]]

approach (e.g., question or scenario-based software) that is consistent 
with the MMUCC Guideline and the statewide database's validation rules. 
The program will require that crash data is validated at the point 
records are added to the central State crash repository.
    The State electronic data collection program requires that NHTSA 
make electronic State crash data publicly available. See Public Law 
117-58, 24108(d)(4)(B). Consistent with Federal Privacy Law, 23 U.S.C. 
403(e), 49 U.S.C. 30183, and U.S. Department of Transportation policy, 
NHTSA will withhold from public disclosure any information in the State 
motor vehicle crash data that would lead to the identification of 
individuals involved in a motor vehicle crash.

Request for Information

    The agency is interested in information that would help develop and 
implement a successful State electronic data collection program. This 
includes information about States' existing capacity to collect, store, 
and transfer crash data from the State level to NHTSA; interest in 
moving to an electronic data collection framework; making State crash 
data accessible to the public; identifying potential barriers; 
describing the infrastructural needs to transition to an electronic 
data transfer protocol; and adoption of electronic crash reporting by 
law enforcement agencies. The information will support the development 
and implementation of the State electronic data collection program by 
taking into consideration the States' experiences and operational 
capacity. NHTSA has a general understanding of how data collection and 
information technology protocols work based on NHTSA's assessment of 
State traffic records systems, current State electronic data transfer, 
and FARS operations. However, NHTSA hereby seeks further information 
based on the below questions. This list is not exhaustive, and we 
encourage commenters to provide any further information that they 
believe is relevant to inform the agency as it seeks to implement a 
successful State electronic data collection grant program.

Data Standardization and Modernization of Information Technology

    (1) What are the State's current methodologies for collecting and 
standardizing statewide crash data electronically in a central 
repository?
    (2) NHTSA relies on MMUCC to establish a standardized data set. 
What steps are required for the State to meet this standardization?
    (a) Please provide an estimated timeline to implement MMUCC 
standardization.
    (b) What would it cost the State to move toward this data 
standardization?
    (3) If the State does not have a centralized statewide crash data 
repository, describe what the State will need to establish the 
infrastructure; processes and procedures; information technology 
requirement; and training, to support this data modernization effort?
    (4) Explain what the State will need to establish the 
infrastructure; processes and procedures; information technology 
requirement; and training to implement an electronic data transfer 
protocol.
    (5) How long would it take for the State to establish a centralized 
statewide crash data repository and to implement an electronic data 
transfer protocol?
    (6) What are the State's estimated costs associated with 
establishing a centralized statewide crash repository to support an 
electronic data transfer protocol?
    (7) Explain the challenges associated with establishing a 
centralized statewide crash repository that supports an electronic data 
transfer protocol. Elaborate on the State's needs to overcome those 
challenges.

Law Enforcement Electronic Crash Reporting

    (8) What percentage or number of the State's law enforcement 
agencies collect motor vehicle traffic crash information using an 
electronic crash report/records management system?
    (a) Are all law enforcement agencies in the State collecting motor 
vehicle traffic crash information via an electronic crash report/
records management system using the same application?
    (b) For law enforcement agencies collecting motor vehicle traffic 
crash information using an electronic crash report/records management 
system, what application is used?
    (9) What percentage or number of law enforcement agencies solely 
use paper crash reports in the crash reporting process?
    (a) If so, are these paper reports coded into the centralized 
statewide crash repository?
    (b) Describe any law enforcement's reservations for participating 
in electronic crash reporting to document motor vehicle traffic crash 
information?
    (c) Specify the needs and costs for law enforcement agencies to 
adopt electronic-crash reporting to document motor vehicle traffic 
crash information?

Data Management

    (10) Does the State have a conceptual or notional design of how the 
data would flow into a centralized statewide crash data repository? If 
so, please elaborate.
    (11) If the State currently participates in NHTSA EDT protocol, 
does the State have written operating procedures for managing the data 
flow? If so, please submit the data flow or the operational structure.
    (12) Does the State, in its crash data, distinguish between crash 
types between self-reported and police reported crashes?
    (13) Does the State include variables to identify State-reportable 
vs. non-reportable crashes?

Data Accessibility to the Public

    (14) Please provide recommendations on the format types for 
publicly available State crash data.
    (15) What State products and services that include State crash data 
does the State find are most helpful to the public?
    (16) Please advise if the State is interested in modernizing and 
standardizing its State crash system?
    This notice is for information purposes only. The agency will 
review and consider information provided in response to this notice as 
it implements the State electronic data collection grant program, but 
will not respond to comments.
    Authority: S. 24108, Public Law 117-58, 135 Stat 429.

Chou-Lin Chen,
Associate Administrator, National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2022-09152 Filed 4-28-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P