Announcing the Twenty First Public Meeting of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN)

Nathaniel Beuse
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
August 23, 2013

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 164 (Friday, August 23, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Page 52605]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-20394]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration


Announcing the Twenty First Public Meeting of the Crash Injury 
Research and Engineering Network (CIREN)

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

ACTION: Meeting announcement.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the Twenty First Public Meeting of 
members of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network. CIREN is 
a collaborative effort to conduct research on crashes and injuries at 
six Level I Trauma Centers across the United States linked by a 
computer network. The current CIREN model utilizes two types of 
centers, medical and engineering. Medical centers are based at Level I 
Trauma Centers that admit large numbers of people injured in motor 
vehicle crashes. These teams are led by trauma surgeons and emergency 
physicians and also include a crash investigator and project 
coordinator. Engineering centers are based at academic engineering 
laboratories that have experience in motor vehicle crash and human 
injury research. Engineering teams partner with trauma centers to 
enroll crash victims into the CIREN program. Engineering teams are led 
by mechanical engineers, typically trained in the area of impact 
biomechanics. Engineering teams also include trauma/emergency 
physicians, a crash investigator, and a project coordinator. Either 
type of team typically includes additional physicians and/or engineers, 
epidemiologists, nurses, and other researchers.The CIREN process 
combines prospective data collection with professional 
multidisciplinary analysis of medical and engineering evidence to 
determine injury causation in every crash investigation conducted. 
Researchers can review data and share expertise, which may lead to a 
better understanding of crash injury mechanisms and the design of safer 
vehicles.The six centers will give presentations on current research 
based on CIREN data. Topics include: Understanding Brain Injury 
Mechanisms: Integrating Real World Lesions, Anthropomorphic Test Device 
Response, and Finite Element Modeling; Evaluating the Benefits for 
Advanced Automatic Crash Notification; Vehicle Seat Bottom Influence on 
Spine Loads in Frontal Impacts; Rib Fractures in Older Occupants; 
Changes Over Time in Injury and Crash Characteristics; and 
Determination of Seat Belt Use and Positioning with Three-Dimensional 
CT Scans.
    The final agenda will be posted to the CIREN Web site that can be 
accessed by going to http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ciren. The agenda will be 
posted one week prior to the meeting.
    Date and Time: The meeting is scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 
on Wednesday, September 4, 2013.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at: U.S. Department of 
Transportation Headquarters, Oklahoma Room, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, 
Washington, DC 20590.
    To Register For This Event: It is essential that you pre-register 
to expedite the security process for entry to the meeting facility. 
Please send your name, affiliation, phone number, and email address to 
Rodney.Rudd@dot.gov by Wednesday, August 28, 2013, in order to have 
your name added to the pre-registration list. Everyone must have a 
government-issued photo identification to be admitted to the facility.
    For General Information: Rodney Rudd (202) 366-5932, Mark Scarboro 
(202) 366-5078 or Cathy McCullough (202) 366-4734.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NHTSA has held CIREN public meetings on a 
regular basis since 2000, including quarterly meetings and annual 
conferences. This is the Twenty First such meeting. Presentations from 
these meetings are available through the NHTSA Web site. NHTSA plans to 
continue holding CIREN meetings on a regular basis to disseminate CIREN 
information to interested parties. Individual CIREN cases collected 
since 1998 may be viewed from the NHTSA/CIREN Web site at the address 
provided above. Should it be necessary to cancel the meeting due to 
inclement weather or to any other emergencies, a decision to cancel 
will be made as soon as possible and posted immediately on CIREN's Web 
site as indicated above. If you do not have access to the Web site, you 
may call or email the contacts listed in this announcement and leave 
your telephone number or email address. You will be contacted only if 
the meeting is postponed or canceled.

    Issued on: August 16, 2013.
Nathaniel Beuse,
Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety Research.
[FR Doc. 2013-20394 Filed 8-22-13; 8:45 am]
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