[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 170 (Tuesday, September 5, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60736-60741]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-19030]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2023-0019]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; State Data 
Transfer for Vehicle Crash Information

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

ACTION: Notice and request for comments on an extension with 
modification of a currently approved information collection.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 
this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) 
abstracted below will be submitted to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The ICR describes the nature of 
the information collection and its expected burden. This document 
describes a currently approved collection of information for which 
NHTSA intends to seek approval from OMB for extension with modification 
on NHTSA's State Data Transfer for Vehicle Crash Information. A Federal 
Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on the 
following information collection was published on May 3, 2023. One 
supporting comment was received.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before October 5, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection, including suggestions for reducing burden, 
should be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget at 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. To find this particular information 
collection, select ``Currently under Review--Open for Public Comment'' 
or use the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or access 
to background documents, contact Liza Lemaster-Sandbank, Office of 
State Data Reporting System Division, (NSA-0130), (202) 366-4257, 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, W53-306, U.S. 
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 
20590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), a 
Federal agency must receive approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) before it collects certain

[[Page 60737]]

information from the public and a person is not required to respond to 
a collection of information by a Federal agency unless the collection 
displays a valid OMB control number. In compliance with these 
requirements, this notice announces that the following information 
collection request will be submitted to OMB.
    A Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting 
public comments on the following information collection was published 
on May 3, 2023.
    Title: State Data Transfer (SDT) for Vehicle Crash Information.
    OMB Control Number: 2127-0753.
    Form Number: None.
    Type of Request: Modification a currently approved information 
collection.
    Type of Review Requested: Regular.
    Length of Approval Requested: Three years from date of approval.
    Summary of the Collection of Information: The State Data Transfer 
(SDT) program is a voluntary collection of motor vehicle crash data. 
State agencies collect this information about motor vehicle crashes on 
Police Accident Reports (PARs) \1\ for their own needs. In general, a 
PAR includes information about the vehicles and individuals involved in 
a crash, injuries or fatalities resulting from a crash, roadway 
information, environmental information, information to reconstruct the 
crash scenes, etc. The SDT is a process through which participating 
States transfer their PAR data to NHTSA. SDT has two components that 
NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) calls 
protocols:
    1. The State Data System (SDS) protocol obtains PAR crash data from 
States that submit data on an annual basis to NCSA. The data is 
submitted via electronic media, such as encrypted CD-ROM/DVD, or 
through secured mail or a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP). Files 
submitted through the SDS protocol are referred to as ``annual crash 
files.''
    2. The Electronic Data Transfer (EDT) protocol obtains PAR crash 
data, crash reports, and crash images from participating State crash 
systems through an electronic data transfer. Generally, this transfer 
occurs on a nightly basis following State data quality control checks 
and acceptance from each State's centralized database. The information 
is transmitted using Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript 
Object Notation (JSON) files through a web service using Hypertext 
Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) protocol between a State's crash data 
system and NHTSA. NHTSA started using this EDT protocol in 2015. The 
data NHTSA receives is in the States' format, which is not 
standardized. NHTSA does not currently provide regular funding to the 
States to participate in EDT.
    On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure 
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), 
Public Law 117-58. Section 24108 (d) authorizes the Secretary of 
Transportation to establish the State Electronic Data Collection (SEDC) 
program to provide grants to States to establish, upgrade, and 
standardize their centralized statewide crash data repositories to 
enable electronic data collection, intrastate data sharing, and 
electronic data transfer to NHTSA. The objective is to increase the 
accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of the data, including data 
related to fatalities involving vulnerable road users. Through SEDC, 
NHTSA will award grants to States to modernize or establish a 
centralized statewide crash data repository to enable full electronic 
data transfer to NHTSA, increase their alignment to the Model Minimum 
Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) Sixth Edition data, and transmit the 
data in a standardized format to NHTSA. This information collection 
request is to modify NHTSA's existing information collection for SDT to 
account for changes resulting from the new grant program. The new grant 
program will not only increase the number of States using the EDT 
protocol, but it will also request data standardization and increased 
alignment with the MMUCC. States awarded the SEDC grant will be 
referred to as SEDC States; States that continue to electronically 
transmit their crash data to NHTSA through the EDT protocol without 
SEDC grant funds will be referred to as non-SEDC States.
    The SDT process allows States to submit all their PAR data to 
NHTSA. NCSA uses this data to develop a census of the participating 
State's crashes. The dataset helps NCSA identify existing and emerging 
highway safety trends and assess the effectiveness of motor vehicle 
safety standards and new and emerging technologies on vehicle and 
highway safety programs. NHTSA also uses the dataset to support NHTSA's 
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. Specifically, NHTSA uses 
the data to analyze the effects vehicle mass has on fatalities in cost 
benefit analyses for CAFE rulemakings.

Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the 
Information

    NHTSA utilizes the SDT data to identify existing and emerging 
highway safety trends, assess the effectiveness of motor vehicle safety 
standards, and study the impact of new and emerging technologies on 
vehicles and highway safety programs. For example, NHTSA combines data 
from the SDT with information about the type of advanced driver 
assistance systems (ADAS) on crash-involved vehicles to estimate the 
effectiveness of ADAS technologies such as lane keeping support, 
automatic emergency braking, and blind spot detection.
    NHTSA also uses the SDT data to automatically pre-populate the 
motor vehicle crash data it collects for several other NHTSA data 
collection programs. The following are brief descriptions of these data 
collection programs:
     FARS (OMB Control No. 2127-0006) is a nationwide census of 
fatalities caused by motor vehicle traffic crashes. In addition to PAR 
data, FARS includes detailed information regarding the location of the 
crash, the vehicles, and the people involved. FARS cases can also 
include toxicology report data, medical records, medical examiner 
reports, etc.\2\
     CRSS (OMB Control No. 2127-0714) is a nationally 
representative sample of police-reported crashes involving all types of 
motor vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists, ranging from property-
damage-only crashes to those that result in fatalities. CRSS data 
elements are a subset of the data elements on each State's PAR.\3\
     Investigation-based Crash Data Studies (OMB Control Number 
2127-0706) includes CISS, SCI and Special Studies. CISS is a nationally 
representative sample of minor, serious, and fatal crashes involving at 
least one passenger vehicle--cars, light trucks, sport utility 
vehicles, and vans--towed from the scene. CISS collects data at both 
the crash level through scene analysis and the vehicle level through 
vehicle damage assessment together with injury coding. Data collected 
through CISS expands upon the information that is collected in a 
PAR.\4\
     The SCI Program provides NHTSA with the most in-depth 
crash data collected by the agency. The data collected ranges from 
basic information contained in routine police and insurance crash 
reports, to comprehensive data from special reports produced by 
professional crash investigation teams. Hundreds of data elements 
relevant to the vehicle,

[[Page 60738]]

occupants, injury mechanisms, roadway, and safety systems are collected 
for each of the over 100 crashes designated for study annually.
     The Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS) is a data collection 
effort for collecting information about non-traffic crashes and non-
crash incidents. The NTS data provide counts and details regarding 
fatalities and injuries that occur in non-traffic crashes and in non-
crash incidents. The NTS non-traffic crash data are obtained through 
NHTSA's data collection efforts for the Crash Report Sampling System 
(CRSS), the Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS), and the 
Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). NTS also includes data 
outside of NHTSA's own data collections. NTS' non-crash injury data is 
based upon emergency department records from a special study conducted 
by the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury 
Surveillance System (NEISS) All Injury Program. NTS non-crash fatality 
data is derived from death certificate information from the Centers for 
Disease Control's National Vital Statistics System.
     CIREN combines crash data collection with professional 
multidisciplinary analysis of medical and engineering evidence to 
determine injury causation in every crash investigation conducted. The 
mission of the CIREN is to improve the prevention, treatment, and 
rehabilitation of motor vehicle crash injuries to reduce deaths, 
disabilities, and human and economic costs.
    Before EDT, the transfer of motor vehicle crash data from a State's 
crash data system to NHTSA's FARS, CRSS and CISS required individuals 
to manually enter all State vehicle crash data into each of the crash 
data systems operated by NHTSA. The SDT program's EDT protocol enabled 
NHTSA to automate the transfer of State motor vehicle crash data into 
NHTSA's data collection systems and automate some of the data coding 
processes in FARS, CRSS and CISS. Through the SEDC program, 
participating States will build and modernize their centralized 
statewide crash data repositories and increase their alignment to the 
MMUCC Sixth Edition; NHTSA will receive more standardized and timely 
data and increase the usability of the data.
    NHTSA's SDT program will reduce the burden of manual data entry and 
result in more accurate and timely data to help save lives, prevent 
injuries, and reduce economic costs due to motor vehicle crashes.
    In addition, the SDT data are made available to other DOT agencies, 
such as the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration, to support their mission to save lives 
on our national roadways. The SDT data received through SEDC grant will 
be made available to public as required in BIL.
    60-Day Notice: NHTSA published a 60-day notice in the Federal 
Register on May 3, 2023 (88 FR 27949). NHTSA received one comment in 
support of the data collection from the National Association of Mutual 
Insurance Companies (NAMIC). NAMIC emphasized the information 
collection is not only necessary but ``critical for the proper 
performance of the functions of NHTSA and there is every reason to 
believe that the results of the study will have great practical 
utility.'' Furthermore, NAMIC is interested in working with NHTSA on 
areas of studies and analysis. NAMIC is supportive of the Notice and 
strongly urges NHTSA to propose more wide and extensive auto safety 
data recording and reporting.
    Burden to Respondents: NHTSA has provided a description of the 
affected public, estimated number of respondents, description of 
frequency, and estimates of the total burden hours and costs for SDT. 
In aggregate, NHTSA estimates that the total annual burden is 312,663 
hours and $25,000,000.
    Program: SDT.
    Affected Public: This voluntary information collection involves 
State agencies that collect crash data. Specifically, the collection 
involves State governments, the District of Columbia government, U.S. 
Territory governments and the Secretary of the Interior, acting on 
behalf of an Indian Tribe. For purposes of this collection, we refer to 
the respondents generically as ``States.''
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 43.
    There are currently 39 States participating in the SDT: 31 States 
participating using the SDS protocol, and 20 States participating using 
the EDT protocol. There are 15 States providing data using both 
protocols.
    NHTSA expects that in the next three (3) years, these thirty-nine 
(39) States will continue to submit their data using either SDS or EDT 
protocol. NHTSA also expects that, in the next three years, ten (10) 
out of the twenty (20) existing EDT States will apply and be awarded 
SEDC grants and start sending more MMUCC-aligned data to NHTSA; three 
(3) SDS States, that are not EDT States, will apply and be awarded SEDC 
grants and begin sending MMUCC-aligned data to NHTSA; and two (2) new 
States, neither SDS nor EDT participating States, will apply and be 
awarded SEDC grants and begin collecting and transmitting standardized 
data to NHTSA. Therefore, NHTSA estimates the total number of States 
participating in the SDT will increase by four (4), to a total of 
forty-three (43), which is the existing thirty-nine (39) SDT States 
plus the four (4) new SEDC States in the next three (3) years.
    Frequency: The frequency of this information collection varies 
State-by-State, potentially from daily to annually, as agreed upon by 
NHTSA and the individual States. State participating in the SDS 
protocol typically send a file to NHTSA once a year with all the 
crashes occurring during a calendar year. States send these files when 
it has completed its quality control process. For the EDT States, the 
data is usually transferred every night with the crash cases that have 
completed the quality control process since the last nightly transfer.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 312,663 hours.
    As mentioned above, this information collection request is being 
updated to incorporate the burden hour and cost estimates for the new 
SEDC program under the EDT protocol. Due to the different requirements 
for SDS States, EDT non-SEDC States and EDT SEDC States, the annual 
burden for these three types of data transmissions is described 
separately below.

SDS Protocol

    SDS information is obtained annually from States and is submitted 
in a more traditional method via electronic media through secured mail 
or a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). NHTSA assumes a 
participating State already has a centralized statewide crash data 
repository. Currently, thirty-one (31) States are voluntarily 
submitting their annual crash database to NHTSA, with five (5) States 
sending electronic media and twenty-six (26) states uploading the 
database to an SFTP site. Since NHTSA accepts the States' centralized 
statewide crash data repository without changes, NHTSA estimates that 
it will require eight (8) hours for a State Database Administrator to 
save a copy of the State's annual crash database onto a SFTP site or 
electronic media. We estimate an additional four (4) hours will be 
required for an administrative assistant to package and send the 
electronic media to NHTSA. Therefore, the burden hours for thirty-one 
(31) SDS States to save a copy of the State's annual crash database 
onto a SFTP site or electronic media is 248 hours (8 hours x 31 
States). An additional burden for the five (5) SDS States to package

[[Page 60739]]

and send the electronic media to NHTSA is 20 hours (4 hours x 5 
States).
    To estimate the labor cost associated with submitting the SDS 
information, NHTSA looked at wage estimates for the type of personnel 
involved with copying, packaging and sending the data. NHTSA estimates 
the total labor costs associated with copying the database by looking 
at the average wage for Database and Network Administrators and 
Architects. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the 
average hourly wage for Database and Network Administrators and 
Architects (Standard Occupational Classification #15-1240, May 2021) is 
$49.25 \5\ The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that State and 
local government workers' wages represent 61.9% of total labor 
compensation costs.\6\ Therefore, NHTSA estimates the hourly labor 
costs for copying the database to be $79.56 ($49.25 / 61.9%) for 
Database and Network Administrator and Architects. The cost associated 
with the eight (8) hours of Database and Network Administrator labor is 
estimated to be $636.48 ($79.56 x 8 hours) per respondent.
    For the 5 States sending electronic media, NHTSA estimates the 
total labor costs for packing and sending the database by looking at 
the average wage for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants. The BLS 
estimates that the average hourly wage for Secretaries and 
Administrative Assistants (Standard Occupational Classification #43-
6014, May 2021) is $21.76.\7\ By using the same estimate that wages 
represent 61.9% of the total compensation cost of labor, NHTSA 
estimates the total labor hour for packing and sending the database on 
electronic media to be $35.15 ($21.76 / 61.9%). Therefore, the cost 
associated with the four (4) hours to send the electronic media is 
estimated to be $140.60 ($35.15 x 4 hours) per respondent.
    Combining these copying, packing, and sending burden estimates for 
SDS, NHTSA estimates that the total burden hours associated with this 
collection will be 268 (248 + 20) hours and total labor cost associated 
with the collection will be $19,731 ($638.48 x 31 States) for copying, 
and $703 ($140.60 x 5 States) for packing and sending, for a total of 
$20,434 ($19,731 + $703) for the SDS protocol.

States Using the EDT Protocol

    Due to the different requirements including data standardization 
and alignment to MMUCC for SEDC and non-SEDC State, the cost estimates 
for these two groups under EDT protocol will be different as described 
below.

Non-SEDC States Using EDT Protocol

    The non-SEDC States using the EDT protocol burden hour estimate is 
based on the level of effort reported by the States that have fully 
implemented EDT. NHTSA estimates that in the next three years, there 
will not be any new States joining the twenty (20) States already 
participating in the SDT program using the EDT protocol. Any new State 
will participate in EDT by applying for the SEDC grant and meeting SEDC 
requirements. In addition, NHTSA estimates that over the next three 
years, starting in year two (10) existing EDT States will begin 
participating in the new SEDC grant program and will start sending data 
aligned to MMUCC. NHTSA estimates that in year one, year two and year 
three, the number of non-SEDC EDT states will be 20, 15 and 10, 
respectively. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that there will be, on 
average, fifteen (15) non-SEDC EDT protocol States in each of the next 
three years. Since these fifteen (15) non-SEDC States are already using 
the EDT protocol, the cost and burden estimates for these States only 
account for annual maintenance effort. The estimates assume a 
participating State already has a centralized statewide crash data 
repository. The hourly burden for maintenance on States associated with 
non-SEDC EDT is estimated at five (5) hours per year, based upon 
currently participating States' experiences. This time is generally 
used to troubleshoot any connection issues or refine mapping protocols 
for any data elements that have changed.
    NHTSA estimates the cost for IT personnel burden hours using the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics' mean wage estimate for Software and Web 
Developers, Programmers, and Testers (Standard Occupational 
Classification #15-1250, May 2021) of $54.68.\8\ The Bureau of Labor 
Statistics estimates that for State and local government workers, wages 
represent 61.9% of total compensation.\9\ Therefore, the total hourly 
cost associated with the IT burden hours is estimated to be $88.34 
($54.68 / 61.9%) per hour.
    Per the loaded labor rates for State IT staff outlined above, five 
(5) hours of work translates to an estimated total annual maintenance 
burden of $441.70 ($88.34 x 5 hours) per State respondent maintaining 
participation in the EDT program. NHTSA estimates that there will be, 
on average, 15 States participating in non-SEDC EDT program in each of 
the next three years. The total annual responses are 5,475 (15 EDT 
States x 365 nightly responses). Therefore, the annual maintenance cost 
for the States is a total of $6,626 ($441.70 x 15 States) per year. The 
number of total burden hours for the 15 States is 75 hours (5 x 15 
States).

SEDC States Using EDT Protocol

    NHTSA published a Request for Information (RFI)\10\ from May 2, 
2022, to July 15, 2022, to assist the agency with the development and 
implementation of 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 NHTSA. Sixteen (16) 
States and Territories responded to the RFI with cost information for 
updating their centralized statewide crash data repositories and 
aligning to previous versions of MMUCC. NHTSA used that information to 
inform NHTSA's burden estimates and estimates the burden as follows.
    The cost and burden estimates for the EDT protocol are divided into 
two efforts: a one-time implementation effort, and an annual 
maintenance effort. To increase their alignment with the new MMUCC, the 
States will need to either develop a new electronic Police Accident 
Report (PAR) and build a centralized statewide crash data repository if 
they don't already have one or update the existing PAR and centralized 
statewide crash data repository to increase their alignment to the new 
MMUCC. In addition, States will need to electronically transfer their 
data in a standardized format to NHTSA. NHTSA predicts the States will 
need to take the following specific actions:
     Manually entering PAR data if there are legacy paper PARs 
to be input into the new and/or updated centralized statewide crash 
data repository.
     Developing a new PAR to increase alignment with the 
updated MMUCC.
     Adopting the new State PAR by law enforcement agencies.
     Setting up information technology infrastructure for the 
electronic centralized statewide crash data repository.
     Identifying and implementing the system changes to align 
with the updated MMUCC.
     Developing a user guide, data dictionary and training 
materials for the new and/or updated data collection system.
     Developing and implementing database and data warehouse 
for the data collection.
     Developing and implementing data transfer protocols for 
collecting data

[[Page 60740]]

from law enforcement agencies to centralized statewide crash data 
repository.
     Developing and implementing edit and validation rules for 
quality assurance for the data collection.
     Developing and implementing data transfer protocols for 
sharing data among States and sending data to NHTSA.
     Integrating the reporting from other vendors if some law 
enforcement agencies within a state use other vendor's software.
     Creating data analytics and dashboard for data monitoring 
and reporting.
    NHTSA estimates the labor categories in the rows of Table 1 are 
required for the implementation of tasks above. Based on the 
information received from the RFI, NHTSA estimates the labor hours for 
implementation and maintenance for each labor category as in the column 
``Implementation Total Hours'' and ``Maintenance Total Hours'' in Table 
1. Labor category ``Data Entry and Information Processing Workers'' is 
needed when the States transition from a manual/paper system to an 
electronic system. Once the transition is complete, this labor category 
is no longer necessary and therefore is not included in the maintenance 
burden estimates.
    NHTSA uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics' mean hourly wage 
estimate for each Labor Category in the column labeled ``'Labor Rate w/
o Fringe and Benefit'' \11\ in Table 1. The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
estimates that for State and local government workers, wages represent 
61.9% of total compensation.\12\ Therefore, the total hourly rate with 
fringe and benefit associated with the burden hours is calculated as 
below as shown in column ``Labor Rate with Fringe Benefit'' in Table 1.

Labor Rate with Fringe Benefit = Labor Rate w/o Fringe Benefit / Fringe 
Benefit Rate

    The total cost for implementation and maintenance in Table 1 are 
calculated as follows:

Implementation Total Cost = Implementation Total Hours x Labor Rate 
with Fringe Benefit
Maintenance Total Cost = Maintenance Total Hours x Labor Rate with 
Fringe Benefit


                                                                Table 1--Burden Estimates for SECD EDT States Using EDT Protocol
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                 Maintenance
                                                                                Implementation     Maintenance     Implementation                labor rate      Implementation     Maintenance
                          Labor category                             Labor       total hours       total hours     labor rate w/o    Overhead    with Fringe    total labor cost    total labor
                                                                     series         (hrs.)           (hrs.)          fringe and      rate (%)  and Benefit ($/  (per state) ($)      cost (per
                                                                                                                  benefit ($/hr.)                   hr.)                            state) ($)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program manager..................................................    11-3021              1,888             832             $78.33      61.90         $126.54           $238,908        $105,281
Computer System Analyst..........................................    15-1211              5,080             160              49.14      61.90           79.39            403,301          12,702
Web and Digital Interface Designer...............................    15-1255              1,760             416              49.50      61.90           79.97            140,747          33,268
Software Developer...............................................    15-1252             10,240           1,280              58.17      61.90           93.97            962,253         120,282
Web Developers...................................................    15-1254              5,920           1,280              39.09      61.90           63.15            373,848          80,832
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers..................    15-1252              7,040           1,280              46.97      61.90           75.88            534,195          97,126
Database Architects..............................................    15-1243              3,520             960              58.58      61.90           94.64            333,133          90,854
Information Security Analysts....................................    15-1212              1,384              80              54.46      61.90           87.98            121,764           7,038
Data Entry and Information Processing Workers....................    43-9020              4,192  ..............              18.70      61.90           30.21            126,640  ..............
                                                                  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total........................................................  .........             41,024           6,288  .................  .........  ..............          3,234,789         547,384
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Thus, total labor cost for SEDC EDT implementation cost per State 
are estimated to be $3,234,789 with burden hours to be 41,024. The 
total annual maintenance burden cost per year per State is estimated to 
be $547,384 with burden hour as 6,288.
    NHTSA anticipates that during the first year of the grant, States 
will be in the development and implementation phase, where data 
transmission is not expected. Beginning with year two (2), and into 
year three (3), it is estimated that approximately ten (10) States per 
year will start transmitting data to NHTSA using the EDT protocol. 
Therefore, the average of number of State to transmit data to NHTSA for 
the three (3) years is 7 ((10 +10) / 3 = 6.77, rounded to the nearest 
integer). In this case during year three (3), there will be ten (10) 
states in maintenance phase. These are the ten (10) States which start 
transmission data to NHTSA during year two (2). The average number of 
states in maintenance phase is 4 (10 / 3 = 3.33, then round 3.33 up to 
the nearest integer which is 4).
    As NHTSA estimated that there will be average 7 new SEDC EDT States 
each year, the total implementation cost per year will be $22,643,526 
(7 x $3,234,789) with burden hours as 287,168 hours (7 x 41,024 hours); 
the average annual maintenance cost will be $2,189,536 (4 x $547,384) 
with burden hours as 25,152 hours (4 x 6,288 hours). The total SEDC EDT 
labor costs are $24,833,062 ($22,643,526 for implementation and 
$2,189,536 for annual maintenance). This estimate includes total labor 
costs to the State respondents, but States may choose to have 
contractors incur some or all of these labor cost. The total annual 
responses for SEDC EDT States are 4,015 (11 EDT States x 365 nightly 
responses).

Summary for SDT Burden Estimates

    The total estimated burden for SDT is 312,663 hours (268 hours for 
SDS + 75 hours for non-SEDC EDT + (287,168 hours + 25,152 hours) for 
SEDC EDT) and total estimated labor cost is $24,860,121 ($20,434 for 
SDS + $6,626 for non-SEDC EDT + ($22,643,526 + $2,1289,536) for SEDC 
EDT).
    A summary of the burden estimates for SDT is provided in Table 2.

[[Page 60741]]



                                    Table 2--Summary for Estimated SDT Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            Number of
                                                             states       Burden hours        Labor cost ($)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SDS Copying............................................              31             248                   19,731
SDS Packing and Sending................................               5              20                      703
Non-SEDC EDT Maintenance...............................              15              75                    4,270
SEDC EDT Implementation................................               7         287,168               22,643,526
SEDC EDT Maintenance...................................               4          25,152                2,189,536
                                                        --------------------------------------------------------
    Total..............................................  ..............         312,663               24,860,121
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: $25,000,000.
    The SEDC grant, in compliance with BIL, requires a twenty (20) 
percent match from participating State respondents. NHTSA estimates 
about half of the program cost for the SEDC grants will be labor costs. 
NHTSA estimates the total annual burden cost for the SEDC program 
(beyond the labor costs discussed in question 12) will be about 
$25,000,000 to respondents. Since the Grant respondents only have to 
provide at least 20 percent of the total cost, the respondents will 
have to fund about $5,000,000 annually.
    NHTSA does not expect respondents to incur any additional costs for 
the SDS or non-SEDC States using EDT Protocol (beyond labor costs as 
discussed in question 12) as a result of this information collection.

Public Comments Invited

    You are asked to comment on any aspects of this information 
collection, including (a) whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the Department, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the Department's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed information collection; (c) whether the States will use 
contractor(s) to help implement the SEDC grant or manage the 
implementation in-house with the State's own IT department; (d) ways to 
enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be 
collected; and (e) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on respondents, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. chapter 
35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29.

Chou Lin Chen,
Associate Administrator, National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2023-19030 Filed 9-1-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P