Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Request for Approval of a New Information Collection

Michael Howell
Federal Highway Administration
November 12, 2014

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 218 (Wednesday, November 12, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67233-67234]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26730]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration

[Docket No. FHWA-2014-0038]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Request for 
Approval of a New Information Collection

AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of request for approval of a new 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 of a new 
information collection that is summarized below.

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 January 12, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT Docket ID Number 
2014-0038 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: 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.
    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. ET, Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Keith Williams, 202-366-9212, Highway 
Safety Specialist, Office of Safety Programs, Federal Highway 
Administration, Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 
SE., Room E71-119, Washington, DC 20590, Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Inventory of State Police Accident Reports (PAR) and Serious 
Injury Reporting.
    Type of request: New information collection requirement.
    Background: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of 
Safety's mission is to exercise leadership throughout the highway

[[Page 67234]]

community to make the Nation's roadways safer by developing, 
evaluating, and deploying life-saving countermeasures; advancing the 
use of scientific methods and data-driven decisions, fostering a safety 
culture, and promoting an integrated, multidisciplinary 4 E's 
(Engineering, Education, Enforcement, Education) approach to safety. 
The mission is carried out through the Highway Safety Improvement 
Program (HSIP), a data driven strategic approach to improving highway 
safety on all public roads that focuses on performance. The goal of the 
program is to achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and 
serious injuries on all public roads, including non-State-owned public 
roads and roads on tribal lands.
    In keeping with that mission, the United States Congress on June 
29, 2012 passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act 
(MAP-21), which was signed into law (Pub. L. 112-141) on July 6, 2012 
by President Barrack Obama. MAP-21 is a milestone for the U.S. economy 
and the Nation's surface transportation program as it transformed the 
policy and programmatic framework for investments to guide the system's 
growth and development and created a streamlined performance-based 
surface transportation program. The Federal Highway Administration 
defines Transportation Performance Management as a strategic approach 
that uses system information to make investment and policy decisions to 
achieve national performance goals.
    MAP-21 requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish 
performance measures for States to use to assess serious injuries and 
fatalities per vehicle mile traveled; and the number of serious 
injuries and fatalities, for the purposes of carrying out the HSIP 
under 23 U.S.C. 148. The HSIP is applicable to all public roads and 
therefore requires crash reporting by law enforcement agencies that 
have jurisdiction over them.
    In defining performance measures for serious injuries, FHWA seeks 
to define serious injuries in a manner that would provide for a uniform 
definition for national reporting in this performance area, as required 
by MAP-21. An established standard for defining serious injuries as a 
result of highway crashes has been developed in the 4th edition of the 
Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). MMUCC represents a 
voluntary and collaborative effort to generate uniform crash data that 
are accurate, reliable and credible for data-driven highway safety 
decisions within a State, between States, and at the national level. 
The MMUCC defines a serious injuries resulting from traffic crashes as 
``Suspected Serious Injury (A)'' whose attributes are:
    Any injury, other than fatal, which results in one or more of the 
following: Severe laceration resulting in exposure of underlying 
tissues, muscle, organs, or resulting in significant loss of blood, 
broken or distorted extremity (arm or leg), crush injuries, suspected 
skull, chest, or abdominal injury other than bruises or minor 
lacerations, significant burns (second and third degree burns over 10 
percent or more of the body), unconsciousness when taken from the crash 
scene, or paralysis.
    As part of the effort to understand current reporting levels for 
serious injuries to support the MAP-21 performance measures, the FHWA 
seeks to determine at what level law enforcement agencies have adopted 
the MMUCC definition, attribute and coding convention. FHWA is aware 
that not all States have adopted the MMUCC definition, attribute and 
coding convention for serious injuries while other States have only 
partially adopted the definition. It is also known that some 
jurisdictions do not use the State Police Accident Report (PAR) form to 
report on crashes. It is not known if these PARs are MMUCC compliant.
    The purpose of the information collection is to conduct an 
assessment of each Federal, tribal, State and non-State PAR to 
determine if the definition and coding convention used for reporting on 
serious injuries is or is not compliant with MMUCC, and if not 
compliant, the definition and coding convention that is used.
    Respondents: Federal State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 
tribal and local traffic records management agencies. (75 total).
    Frequency: One time collection.
    Estimated Average Burden per Response: It will take approximately 
15 minutes per participant.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: Approximately 19 hours for a 
one time collection.
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of 
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the U.S. DOT's performance, 
including whether the information will have practical utility; (2) the 
accuracy of the U.S. DOT's estimate of the burden of the proposed 
information collection; (3) ways 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: November 5, 2014.
Michael Howell,
Information Collection Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-26730 Filed 11-10-14; 8:45 am]
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