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

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

Publication: Federal Register
Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Byline: Chou-Lin Chen
Date: 20 October 2021
Subjects: American Government

, Safety

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 200 (Wednesday, October 20, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58141-58145]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-22824]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. DOT-NHTSA-2021-0039]

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 approval of an extension 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)
summarized below will be submitted to

[[Page 58142]]

the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The
ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected
burden. The State Data Transfer (SDT) program is a voluntary collection
of motor vehicle crash data that State agencies collect for their own
needs. NHTSA received emergency clearance to conduct the information
collection until December 31, 2021. A Federal Register Notice with a
60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following information
collection was published on June 1, 2021. One comment from the
Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) was received supporting
NHTSA's SDT data collection and the request for emergency clearance to
expedite this effort.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before November 19, 2021.

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 Michael Frenchik, Office of Data
Acquisitions (NSA-0100), (202) 366-0641, National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, Room W53-303, 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 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.
Title: State Data Transfer (SDT) for Vehicle Crash Information.
OMB Control Number: 2127-0753.
Form Numbers: None.
Type of Request: Approval of an extension without modification of a
currently approved information collection.
Type of Review Requested: Regular.
Length of Approval Requested: Three years.
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:
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\1\ Police Accident Reports are also known as Police Crash
Reports (PCRs) in some jurisdictions.
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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 or 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.
The SDT process allows States to submit all of their PAR data to
NHTSA. NCSA will then use this data to develop a census of the
participating State's crashes. The dataset will help 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 will also
use the dataset to support NHTSA's Corporate Average Fuel Economy
(CAFE) program. Specifically, NHTSA will use 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 plans to utilize 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 plans to combine data from the SDT with information about the
type of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) on crash-involved
vehicles to estimate the effectiveness of vehicles equipped with ADAS
technologies such as lane keeping support, automatic emergency braking,
blind spot detection, etc.
NHTSA also plans to use 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\
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\2\ Additional details about FARS and how the agency collects
this information are available in the supporting statements for the
ICR with OMB Control No. 2127-0006.
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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\
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\3\ Additional details about CRSS and how the agency collects
this information are available in the supporting statements for the
ICR with OMB Control No. 2127-0714.
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CISS (OMB Control Number 2127-0706) 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\
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\4\ Additional details about CISS and how the agency collects
this information are available in the supporting statements for the
ICR with OMB Control No. 2127-0706.
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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

[[Page 58143]]

produced by professional crash investigation teams. Hundreds of data
elements relevant to the vehicle, occupants, injury mechanisms,
roadway, and safety systems are collected for each of the over 100
crashes designated for study annually.
NTS is a virtual data collection system designed to
provide counts and details regarding fatalities and injuries that occur
in non-traffic crashes and in non-crash incidents. NTS non-traffic
crash data is obtained through NHTSA's information collections for CRSS
and FARS. 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.
Until recently, the transfer of vehicle crash data from a State's
crash data system to NHTSA's FARS, CRSS and CISS required individuals
to manually enter State vehicle crash data into each of the crash data
systems operated by NHTSA. The SDT program will allow NHTSA to automate
the transfer of State motor vehicle crash data into NHTSA's other data
collection efforts that use this information. NHTSA's SDT program will
reduce the burden for manual data entry and result in more accurate,
high quality and timely data to help save lives, prevent injuries, and
reduce economic costs due to motor vehicle crashes.
In addition, the SDT data will be 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.
Request for Emergency Clearance: NHTSA requested emergency
clearance from OMB for the SDT information collection. NHTSA requested
emergency clearance for the maximum permissible period under 5 CFR
1320.13 (f) to allow NHTSA to collect the information while it
completes the normal clearance procedures. NHTSA sought emergency
clearance because the data collected through the SDT program are
critical to several high priority projects for this administration. The
SDT data will be used to analyze the effects vehicle mass has on
fatalities in cost benefit analyses for CAFE rulemakings. Executive
Order 13990 requires NHTSA to ``as appropriate and consistent with
applicable law, [. . .] consider publishing for notice and comment a
proposed rule suspending, revising, or rescinding'' the SAFE II Rule
``by July 2021.'' Following the normal clearance procedures will not
allow NHTSA to receive approval to collect and use this data before the
deadline.
The Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS)
also needs this data to help determine the effectiveness of automated
driver assistance systems (ADAS) with Departmental leadership expecting
initial analyses later this year.
Given the priorities identified above, this information is needed
before NHTSA can complete the normal clearance procedures under 5 CFR
part 1320. OMB approved the emergency clearance through December 31,
2021.
60-Day Notice: On June 1, 2021, NHTSA published a notice in the
Federal Register with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on
this ICR.\5\ NHTSA received one comment from the Governors Highway
Safety Association (GHSA). In their comment, GHSA expressed support for
NHTSA's SDT data collection and the request for emergency clearance to
expedite this effort. GHSA stated that it appreciates that the data
collection is voluntary and agrees with NHTSA ``that several States
will likely continue to face participation barriers.'' GHSA further
noted that it understands that the electronic transfer of Stata crash
data reduces time and cost to States that participate and will continue
to partner with NHTSA to promote SDT.
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\5\ 86 FR 29354.
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Affected Public: State Governments.
This voluntary information collection involves State governments,
and specifically the State agencies that collect crash data.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 38.
Currently, 31 States are voluntarily submitting their annual crash
database to NHTSA using the SDS protocol once the Annual file is
complete and 19 States are voluntarily submitting their State's data
using the EDT protocol where the transfer occurs on a nightly basis.
NHTSA estimates that, on average, in each of the next three years,
there will be 31 States submitting data using the SDS protocol and 23
States submitting data using the EDT protocol. NHTSA estimates that
there will be 15 States submitting data through both EDT and SDS.
Therefore, NHTSA estimates the total number of respondents to be 38.
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. States participating in the SDS
protocol typically send a file to NHTSA once a year with all the
crashes occurring during a calendar year. A State will 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.
Number of Reponses: NHTSA estimates total annual responses based on
NHTSA's estimate that SDS protocol States will submit files once a year
and EDT protocol States will send data to NHTSA automatically on a
nightly basis. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that it will receive 31 SDS
responses a year (31 SDS States x 1 annual response) and 8,395 EDT
responses a year (23 EDT States x 365 nightly responses).
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 683 hours.
SDT receives the crash data from States in two different ways. SDS
information is obtained annually from States 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 electronic crash database. Currently,
31 States are voluntarily submitting their annual crash database to
NHTSA, with five States sending electronic media and 26 states
uploading the database to an SFTP site. Since NHTSA accepts the States'
centralized electronic crash database without changes, NHTSA estimates
that it will require eight 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 hours will be required
for an administrative assistant to package and send the electronic
media to NHTSA.
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 database. NHTSA
estimates the total labor costs associated with copying the database by
looking at the average wage for Database and Network Administrator

[[Page 58144]]

and Architects. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the
average hourly wage for Database and Network Administrator and
Architects (Standard Occupational Classification #15-1240, May 2020) is
$47.80.\6\ The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that State and
local government workers' wages represent 61.9% of total labor
compensation costs.\7\ Therefore, NHTSA estimates the hourly labor
costs for copying the database to be $77.22 ($47.80 / 61.9%) for
Database and Network Administrator and Architects. The cost associated
with the eight hours of Database and Network Administrator labor is
estimated to be $617.76 per respondent.
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\6\ See May 2020 National Occupational Employment and Wage
Estimates United States, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm (accessed April 16, 2021).
\7\ See Table 1. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by
ownership (Dec. 2020), available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t01.htm (accessed April 16, 2021).
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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
Administrator Assistants (Standard Occupational Classification #43-
6014, May 2020) is $19.43.\8\ 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 $31.39. Therefore, the cost associated with the
four hours to send the electronic media is estimated to be $125.56 per
respondent.
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\8\ See May 2020 National Occupational Employment and Wage
Estimates United States, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm (accessed April 16, 2021).
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Combining these copying and packing and sending burden estimates
for SDS, NHTSA estimates that the total burden hours associated with
this collection will be 268 (248 + 20 hours) hours and total labor cost
associated with the collection will be $19,151 ($617.76 x 31 States)
for copying and $628 ($125.56 x 5 States) for packing and sending, for
a total of $19,779 ($19,151 + $628) for the SDS protocol.

SDS Burden Estimate Summary
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Burden hours Total burden Labor cost per Labor cost per Total labor
Burden type Respondents per respondent hours burden hour respondent cost
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SDS Copying............................................. 31 8 248 $77.22 $617.76 $19,150,56
19,151
SDS Packing and sending................................. 5 4 20 31.39 125.56 627.80
628
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Total............................................... .............. .............. 268 .............. .............. 19,779
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The EDT protocol burden hour estimate is based on the level of
effort reported by the States that have fully implemented SDT. NHTSA
estimates that in each of the next three years, there will be two new
States joining the 19 States already participating in SDT program using
the EDT protocol. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that there will be, on
average, 23 EDT protocol States in each of the next three years. Cost
and burden estimates for the EDT protocol are divided in two: a one-
time implementation effort, and an annual maintenance effort. Both
estimates assume a participating State already has a centralized
electronic crash database. The burden for the one-time implementation
of the SDT program is estimated at 200 hours. NHTSA estimates that
these hours will account for work done by State IT (150 hrs.) and FARS
program personnel (50 hrs.).
Once implemented, the hourly burden on States associated with SDT
maintenance is estimated at five 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 developers
and Programmers (Standard Occupational Classification # 15-1250) of
$52.86.\9\ The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that for State and
local government workers, wages represent 61.9% of total
compensation.\10\ Therefore, the total hourly cost associated with the
IT burden hours is estimated to be $85.40 per hour. The cost associated
with the 150 hours of IT personnel labor is estimated to be $12,810.00
per respondent. Initial SDT implementation is also expected to involve
50 hours of FARS program personnel time. There is no additional cost to
the States associated with these hours because these costs may be
charged to the Federal Government through the FARS cooperative
agreements. Thus, total labor cost for EDT implication costs per State
are estimated to be $12,810.00. The total annual implementation burden
cost per year is estimated to be $25,620 ($12,810.00 x 2 new State
respondents).
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\9\ See May 2020 National Occupational Employment and Wage
Estimates United States, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm (accessed April 16, 2021).
\10\ Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by ownership (Dec.
2020), available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t01.htm
(accessed April 16, 2021).
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After initial implementation of a SDT interface, the ongoing cost
burden to participating States is estimated at 5 hours per State
annually, based on a survey of currently participating States. Per the
loaded labor rates for State IT staff outlined above, 5 hours of work
translates to an estimated total annual maintenance burden of $427.00
per State respondent maintaining participation in the SDT program.
NHTSA estimates that there will be, on average, 23 States participating
in EDT program in each of the next three years. Therefore, the annual
maintenance cost for the States is a total of $9,821.00 ($427.00 x 23
States) per year.
Combining these implementation and maintenance burden estimates for
the EDT protocol, NHTSA estimates that the total burden hours
associated with this collection will be 415 hours and total labor cost
associated with the collection will be $35,441.00.

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EDT Burden Estimate Summary
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Burden hours Total burden Labor cost per Labor cost per Total labor
Burden type Respondents per respondent hours burden hour respondent cost
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EDT IT Implementation................................... 2 150 300 $85.40 $12,810.00 $25,620.00
25,620
EDT Maintenance......................................... 23 5 115 85.40 427.00 9,821.00
9,821
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Total............................................... .............. .............. 415 .............. .............. 35,441
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The total estimated burden for SDT is 683 (268 SDS + 415 EDT) and
total estimated labor cost is $55,220 ($19,779 SDS + $35,441 EDT).
A summary of the burden estimates is provided in the table below.

SDT Burden Estimate Summary
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Average burden
Burden type Respondents Total annual Total burden hours per Total labor Labor cost per
responses hours respondent cost respondent
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SDS..................................................... 31 31 268 9 $19,779 $638
EDT..................................................... 23 8,395 415 18 35,441 1,541
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Total............................................... .............. .............. 683 .............. 55,220 ..............
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Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: $0.
NHTSA does not expect that participating states will incur any
costs beyond the labor hour cost associated with the burden hours.
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 agency, including whether the information will
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of
the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance
the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected;
and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on
respondents, including the use of appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms
of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of
responses.
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. 2021-22824 Filed 10-19-21; 8:45 am]
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