Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments for a New Information Collection

Michael Howell
Federal Highway Administration
7 September 2017

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 172 (Thursday, September 7, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42413-42414]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-18990]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration

[Docket No. FHWA-2017-0037]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments 
for a New Information Collection

AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FHWA has forwarded the information collection request 
described in this notice to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
for approval of a new information collection. We published a Federal 
Register Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information 
collection on June 19, 2017. We are required to publish this notice in 
the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Please submit comments by October 10, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You may send comments within 30 days to the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 
725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention DOT Desk Officer. 
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 burden; (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. All comments should include the 
Docket No. FHWA- 2017-0037.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dana Gigliotti, 202-366-1290, 
dana.gigliotti@dot.gov, Highway Safety Specialist, Office of Safety 
Programs, Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room E71-324, Washington, DC 20590, Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Inventory of State Compliance on Serious Injury Reporting 
Using the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria 4th Edition.
    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 
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 and continued in the Fixing America's 
Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). 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 FHWA defines 
Transportation Performance Management (TPM) as a strategic approach 
that uses system information to make investment and policy decisions to 
achieve national performance goals.
    MAP-21 required 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 
requires national reporting by States using a uniform definition for 
national reporting

[[Page 42414]]

in this performance area, as required by MAP-21. An established 
standard for defining serious injuries as a result of motor vehicle 
related 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 injury 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 national requirement to report serious injuries 
using the MMUCC 4th Edition definition, the FHWA seeks to determine if 
States have adopted the MMUCC 4th edition definition, attribute and 
coding convention by the required April 15, 2019 date. Specifically, 
States will be considered compliant with the serious injury definition 
requirement if it: Maintains a statewide crash database capable of 
accurately aggregating the MMUCC 4th Edition injury status attribute 
for ``Suspected Serious Injury (A); Ensures the State crash database, 
data dictionary and crash report user manual employs the verbatim 
terminology and definitions for the MMUCC 4th Edition injury status 
attribute Suspected Serious Injury (A); Ensures the police crash form 
employs the verbatim MMUCC 4th Edition injury status attribute for 
Suspected Serious Injury (A); Ensures that the seven serious injury 
types specified in the Suspected Serious Injury (A) attribute are not 
included in any of the other attributes listed in the States' injury 
status data elements are MMUCC compliant.
    The purpose of the information collection is to assess each States' 
ability to report serious injuries using the new Federal definition. 
This assessment will require consultation with the State database 
owner, State law enforcement agency and possibly county and municipal 
law enforcement agencies that don't use the State form.
    Respondents: State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, tribal 
and local traffic records management agencies and law enforcement. (75 
total).
    Frequency: One time collection.
    Estimated Average Burden per Response: It will take approximately 
30 minutes per participant.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: Approximately 37 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: August 31, 2017.
Michael Howell,
Information Collection Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-18990 Filed 9-6-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-22-P