Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Request for Extension of Currently Approved Information Collection |
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Michael Howell
Federal Highway Administration
June 5, 2014
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 108 (Thursday, June 5, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32602-32604]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-13055]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[Docket No. FHWA-2014-0021]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Request for
Extension of Currently Approved Information Collection
AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of request for extension of currently approved
information collection.
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SUMMARY: The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to
request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for
renewal of an existing information collection that is summarized below
under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We are required to publish this notice
in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Please submit comments by August 4, 2014.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT Docket ID 2014-
0021 by any of the following methods:
Web site: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: U.S. Department of Transportation, West
Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Craig Thor, Ph.D., Office of Safety
Research and Development (HRDS), at (202) 493-3338, Turner-Fairbank
Highway Research Center, Federal Highway Administration, 6300
Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA, 22101, between 7:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Motorcycle Crash Causation Study.
OMB Control #: 2125-0619.
Background: In 2011, there were 4,612 motorcycle crash-related
fatalities in the United States--more than twice the number of
motorcycle rider fatalities
[[Page 32603]]
that occurred in 1997. This increase contrasts with a 33% reduction in
the number of fatalities in passenger cars and light trucks.\1\ In
response to this growing concern, the U.S. Congress passed legislation
to fund a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) research effort into
the causes of motorcycle crashes in the United States. Congress has
recognized this problem and directed the Department of Transportation
to conduct research that will provide a better understanding of the
causes of motorcycle crashes. Specifically, in Section 5511 of the
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) Public Law 109-59, Congress directed the
Secretary of Transportation to provide grants to the Oklahoma
Transportation Center (OTC) for the purpose of conducting a
comprehensive, in-depth motorcycle crash causation study that employs
the common international methodology for in-depth motorcycle crash
investigation developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD).\2\ The Secretary of Transportation delegated
authority to FHWA for the Motorcycle Crash Causation Grants under
Section 5511 (71 FR 30831). This study began in June, 2012 and has been
successful in completing the necessary data collection.
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\1\ NHTSA FARS encyclopedia: http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx.
\2\ The OECD methodology may be obtained by sending a request to
jtrc.contact@oecd.org.
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Proposed Data Acquisition Methodology
Use of Parallel and Complementary Procedures
The OECD describes two complementary procedures to be performed for
acquiring the data needed to understand the causes of motorcycle
crashes. The first of these is the traditional in-depth crash
investigation that focuses on the sequence of events leading up to the
crash, and on the motorcycle, rider, and environmental characteristics
that may have been relevant to the crash. The second procedure, known
as the case-control procedure, complements the first. It requires the
acquisition of matched control data to allow for a determination of the
extent to which rider characteristics and pre-crash factors observed in
the crash vehicles are present in similarly-at-risk control vehicles.
Such a dual approach offers specific advantages to the
understanding of crashes and the development of countermeasures. The
in-depth study of the crash by itself allows for analysis of the events
antecedent to the crash, some of which, if removed or altered, could
result in a change in subsequent events that would have led to a non-
crash, or reduced crash severity outcome. The main purpose of acquiring
matched data is to allow for inferences to be made regarding risk
factors for crash causes. A brief explanation is provided here so that
those less familiar with case-control procedures will understand the
advantage of acquiring controls. Consider a hypothetical situation
where it is observed that the proportion of older riders involved in
crashes who were unfamiliar with the roadway is the same as the
proportion of matched (similarly-at-risk) older control motorcycle
riders not involved in crashes. Conversely, the proportion of Younger
riders involved in crashes who were unfamiliar with the roadway is the
greater than the proportion of matched younger control motorcycle
riders not involved in crashes. These hypothetical findings would
suggest that a lack of familiarity with the roadway poses a greater
crash risk for younger riders than it does for older riders. Other risk
factors for crashes (i.e. gender, riding experience, fatigue level) for
motorcyclists may also be examined in this manner. If scaled interval
measurements of risk factor levels are obtained (for example, the
number of years of riding experience for both crash-involved and
control riders), then it becomes possible to calculate functions
showing how risk changes with changes in the variable of interest. Such
risk functions are highly useful in the development of
countermeasures.\3\
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\3\ Certainly other outcomes besides the one presented are
possible, and other comparisons are of interest.
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Issues Related to Sampling
Characteristics of the Crash Sample
To properly acquire in-depth crash data, it was necessary to find a
location in the country that experiences the full range of motorcycle
crash types that occur under a wide range of conditions and with a wide
range of motorcycle rider characteristics. For this study, Orange
County, California was selected as the data collection site. This
location resembles a cross-section of motorcycle riding environments.
There are both rural and urban regions; flat land and rolling hills;
and daily commuters and leisure riders, therefore, the data collected
from this region should reflect many of the causative factors that
produce motorcycle crashes in these different riding environments. This
location also allows for a sufficiently high frequency of motorcycle
crashes to allow acquisition of the crash data in a reasonable amount
of time. To date, this single location has proven to be sufficient to
collect the required number of cases and controls. It is not necessary
that the crash types observed (or other composite indices or parameters
of interest) be drawn from a nationally representative sample, because
it is not the intent of FHWA to make projections of the national
incidence of the causes of crashes involving motorcycles from this
study. Rather, the focus will be on identifying the antecedents and
risk factors associated with motorcycle crashes. If it is deemed
necessary, FHWA and NHTSA may utilize their alternative databases that
incorporate certain of the key variables that will be acquired in this
study, and those databases could be used in conjunction with this
study's data to make national estimates of population parameters of
interest.\4\
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\4\ There is a lengthy precedent for studying crashes using
case-control methods including the Grand Rapids study, (Borkenstein,
R.F., Crowther, F.R., Shumate, R.P., Ziel, W.B. & Zylman, R. (1974).
The Role of the Drinking Driver in Traffic Accidents (The Grand
Rapids Study). Blutalkohol, 11, Supplement 1), and of course the
Hurt study, (Hurt, H.H., Jr., Ouellet, J.V., and Thom, D.R. (1981).
Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of
Countermeasures Volume I: Technical Report).
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In addition, the crash investigations will be conducted on-scene,
and, when possible, while the involved operators and vehicles are still
in place. This provides access to physical data that is less disturbed
by rescue and clean up activities. It also facilitates the collection
of interview data while memories are unaffected. This quick-response
approach is most effective when a census of applicable crashes is
selected for inclusion.
Characteristics of the Control Sample
While the occurrence of a crash involving a motorcycle in the study
site is sufficient for it to be selected into the study, selecting the
similarly-at-risk controls requires a different approach. The OECD
recommends several options for acquiring matched controls including
interviewing motorcyclists who may be filling up at nearby gas
stations, taking videos of motorcyclists who pass the crash scenes, and
interviewing motorcyclists at the location of the crash location at the
same time of day, same day of week, and same direction of travel. The
first of these methods suffers from the shortcoming that a rider or
motorist filling his fuel tank is not presented with the same risks, in
the same setting,
[[Page 32604]]
as is the crash-involved rider and motorist. Passenger-vehicle
motorists and motorcyclists need to be sampled at the location of the
crash on the same day of the week, at the same hour, and from the same
travel direction. Using the second method mentioned above, acquiring
the risk sample by taking video at the crash scene provides a
similarly-at-risk pool and it also allows for many controls to be
acquired at low cost. Its chief disadvantage is that it does not allow
capture of some of the key risk factors for crashes (e.g., fatigue),
while others (e.g., age) may be very difficult to capture. Therefore,
this method is not sufficient to support the scope of the current
effort.
The final method, the voluntary safety research interview, involves
setting up a safety zone at or near the crash location, one week later
at the same time of day, and asking those motorcyclists who pass
through to volunteer in a study. With this method, Certificates of
Confidentiality are presented to each interviewed driver and rider and
immunity is provided. The main advantage of this method is that the key
variables that are thought to affect relative crash risk can be
acquired from riders who are truly similarly-at-risk. This is the
method used in the current effort.
Information Proposed for Collection
The data collection protocol includes the following number of
variables for each aspect of the investigation:
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Number of
Data Collection Form questions
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Administrative log...................................... 43
Crash Form.............................................. 22
Motorcycle Rider Form................................... 105
Motorcycle Passenger.................................... 65
Motorcycle Mechanical................................... 91
Motorcycle Dynamics..................................... 43
Environment Form........................................ 51
Helmet Form............................................. 77
Other Vehicle Form...................................... 26
Injury Form............................................. 160
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Note that multiple copies of various data forms will be completed
as the data on each crash-involved vehicle and person and each control
vehicle and person are acquired. This increases the number of variables
above the sum of what is presented above. There are also diagrams and
photographs that are essential elements of each investigation that are
entered into the database. Up to 1,600 data elements may be collected
for each case, including the control rider data.
Estimated Burden Hours for Information Collection
Frequency: Annually.
Respondents: This study will be based on all crashes occurring
within the sampling area. This burden estimate is based on the
distribution of crash types seen in the study to date. The plan calls
for data to be captured from up to 1,200 crashes with motorcycle
involvement, and for all surviving crash-involved riders and drivers to
be interviewed. Two control riders will be interviewed for each crash-
involved motorcyclist. Passengers accompanying crash-involved riders
and passenger-vehicle drivers will also be interviewed. The following
table shows the sampling plan and estimated number of interviews
assuming 1,200 crashes are investigated.\5\ Maximum total crashes to be
investigated is 1,200.
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\5\ The final crash sample size will depend on the rate at which
crashes can be acquired in the selected site(s) and other matters
related to logistics and the final budget.
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Crash Interviews
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Single vehicle motorcycle crashes................... 252
Multi-vehicle (2-vehicle) motorcycle crashes (840*2) 1680
Passenger interviews motorcycle (.07* 252 + 136
.07*1680)..........................................
Passenger interviews cars (.19*235)................. 319
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Total Crash Interviews.......................... 2387
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Control interviews
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Controls for single vehicle motorcycle crashes 504
(2*252)............................................
Controls for multi-vehicle motorcycle crashes (1*840 1680
+ 1*840)...........................................
Passenger Interviews................................ 0
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Total Control Interviews........................ 2184
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Grand Total Crash plus Control Interviews....... 4571
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Estimated Average Burden per Interviewee: Crash interviews are
estimated to require about 30 minutes per individual interviewed. To
the extent possible, crash interviews will be collected at the scene,
although it is likely that some follow-ups will be needed to get
completed interviews from crash involved individuals. Control
individuals' interviews will be completed in a single session and are
expected to require about 15 minutes per individual.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: Burden hours estimates are
based on the total of 2,387 crash interviews to be conducted at an
average length of 30 minutes each and 2,184 control interviews to be
conducted at an average length of 15 minutes each for a total one-time
burden on the public of 1,770 hours.
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed
collection is necessary for the FHWA's performance; (2) the accuracy of
the estimated burdens; (3) ways for the FHWA to enhance the quality,
usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and (4) ways that
the burden could be minimized, including the use of electronic
technology, without reducing the quality of the collected information.
The agency will summarize and/or include your comments in the request
for OMB's clearance of this information collection.
Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.48.
Issued on: May 29, 2014.
Michael Howell,
Information Collection Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-13055 Filed 6-4-14; 8:45 am]
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