The FARS is a voluntary information
collection of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. The FARS is in
its forty-sixth year of operation and is a census of all defined
crashes involving fatalities in the country. The FARS collects data
from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico under
cooperative agreements. State employees extract and transcribe
information from existing State files including police crash
reports as well as driver license, vehicle registration, highway
department, and vital statistics files. NHTSA aggregates the data
for research and analysis in support of motor vehicle regulations
and highway safety programs. This supports NHTSA’s mission to save
lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic losses resulting from
motor vehicle crashes by providing the agency vital information
about fatal crashes. The aggregated data comprises a national
database that is NHTSA’s and many States’ principal means of
tracking trends in fatalities and quantifying problems or potential
problems in highway safety. The FARS data are used extensively by
all the NHTSA program and research offices, other DOT modes,
States, and local jurisdictions. The highway research community
uses the FARS data for trend analysis, problem identification, and
program evaluation. Congress uses the FARS data for making
decisions concerning safety programs. The FARS data are also
available upon request to anyone interested in highway safety. The
annual burden has been adjusted from 106,244 to 107,209 hours (an
increase of 965 hours) costs have decreased from $100,000 to $0 (a
decrease of $100,000). The adjustment in burden hours is due to the
increase in the complexity of coding the FARS cases and an increase
in the number of fatal crashes across most States. The increase
also accounts for the time to process the non-traffic fatalities
for NTS. Furthermore, while time for manually inputting data has
decreased with States implementing systems to electronically
transfer police report data that prepopulate NHTSA’s data systems,
including FARS, the overall burden increased because, over the past
two years, there has been an increase in staff turnover at the
State level, adding an increase in administrative hours, training,
and coding assistance to continue operations. The decrease in costs
is a result of removing labor costs associated with labor hours
that were incorrectly included in our last ICR.
US Code:
23
USC 101 Name of Law: Highway Safety Act of 1966
The annual burden has been
adjusted from 106,244 to 107,209 hours (an increase of 965 hours)
costs have decreased from $100,000 to $0 (a decrease of $100,000).
The adjustment in burden hours is due to the increase in the
complexity of coding the FARS cases and an increase in the number
of fatal crashes across most States. The increase also accounts for
the time to process the non-traffic fatalities for NTS.
Furthermore, while time for manually inputting data has decreased
with States implementing systems to electronically transfer police
report data that prepopulate NHTSA’s data systems, including FARS,
the overall burden increased because, over the past two years,
there has been an increase in staff turnover at the State level,
adding an increase in administrative hours, training, and coding
assistance to continue operations. The decrease in costs is a
result of removing labor costs associated with labor hours that
were incorrectly included in our last ICR. Costs decreased from
$100,000 to $0. When NHTSA last sought approval, labor costs were
included in response to question 13, which was incorrect.
$9,700,000
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Tina Morgan 202
366-9253
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.