Program

SAFETY PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

There are four programs in Safety Performance Standards. The Safety Standards Support Program conducts tests, gathers data, and conducts analyses in support of regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives to increase motor vehicle safety. The New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) conducts tests to evaluate the comparative crashworthiness and crash avoidance characteristics of passenger vehicles and to motivate vehicle manufacturers to provide higher levels of occupant protection by using market forces. The Fuel Economy Program monitors manufacturer progress in achieving established passenger automobile and light truck fuel economy standards and sets annual standards for light trucks as prescribed by law. The Theft Prevention Program establishes standards to reduce the number of motor vehicle thefts and provides information to the public on theft and recovery of passenger cars and light trucks.

FY 2003 HIGHLIGHTS 

SAFETY STANDARDS SUPPORT 

• Provide testing and analytical support for meeting the requirements of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act for enhanced crash protection for children in child restraint systems, and for heavy truck tire safety. 
• Conduct testing for new requirements for retread tires and tire pressure monitoring systems on commercial vehicles, to upgrade standard 121 to accommodate electronic control braking systems, to upgrade standard 111 to accommodate cross view mirrors on commercial vehicles, to upgrade standard 108 to address issues related to night time glare, and upgrade standard 122 to improve motorcycle braking performance. 
• Perform tests to upgrade light vehicle and heavy truck braking standards, to accommodate new technologies and for harmonization with global standards. 
• Collect and assess data on non-crash fatalities and on adapted vehicles. 
• Conduct performance demonstration tests for the development of headlighting performance information for consumers. 
• Assess upgrading crashworthiness standards for occupant protection in rear impacts, including seat strength requirements, offset frontal crash protection, the next generation of occupant protection systems for school buses, potential application of standards to motorcoaches, upgrading side impact safety standards for improved head protection, and conducting cost and lead time studies on bus emergency exits and window retention/release and rear impact protection. 
• Continue technology assessments for the regulatory review of standards that have not had major updates since the 1980’s. 
• Develop and deliver vehicle safety information on tire safety, towing and trailering, antilock brakes and other vehicle issues, as well as developing diversity initiatives and materials to better reach underserved populations.

NEW CAR ASSESSMENT PROGRAM 

• Provide frontal and side impact test ratings covering about 80 percent of new vehicles, based on approximately 70 passenger vehicle tests. 
• Measure the static stability factor (rollover resistance) for approximately 100 vehicles. 
• Support TREAD requirements through implementation of programs for a child restraint ratings system and a dynamic rollover rating program. 
• Perform developmental testing on braking and headlighting performance tests. 
• Support Consumer Information program activities to develop and deliver NCAP crash test results and safety information through brochures, campaigns, web-site enhancements and marketing initiatives for on-going and new NCAP information for rollover, braking and child safety seat ratings.

FUEL ECONOMY 

• Maintain, update, and expand the CAFE database for analyses of CAFE changes. 
• Conduct a study to determine the automobile manufacturers’ capability to improve fuel economy. 
• Conduct a study of the technological practicability of automotive technologies. 
• Conduct a study of the environmental implications of higher CAFE standards. 
• Conduct a study of the economic impacts of revised fuel economy standards.

THEFT PREVENTION PROGRAM 

• Conduct data analysis activities to compile and publish insurer reports on theft and recovery of motor vehicles, comprehensive insurance coverage, and actions taken by insurers to reduce motor vehicle thefts.

SAFETY ASSURANCE

There are currently three programs in Safety Assurance. The Vehicle Safety Compliance Program ensures that motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment sold in the U.S. provide the safety benefits intended by federal safety standards. The Defects Investigation Program identifies and removes motor vehicles found to contain safety-related defects from the Nation’s highways. The Odometer Fraud Program enforces federal odometer laws and regulations and encourages States to enforce their odometer laws aggressively.

FY 2003 HIGHLIGHTS 

• Conduct full-scale crash testing of new motor vehicles, including: 20 tests for verification of compliance with the requirements of frontal occupant crash protection standards; 20 tests for verification of compliance with dynamic side impact standards; 15 tests for verification of compliance with the requirements of upper interior head protection standards using a head form; 20 tests for verification of compliance with dynamic rear and side fuel system integrity requirements; and 4 dynamic side impact pole tests to assess the performance of new technology for head protection. 
• Continue to test motor vehicle equipment, with particular emphasis on child restraint systems and motorcycle helmets, to assure compliance with safety standard requirements. 
• Develop and test new procedures for proposed amendments to safety standards for fuel system integrity, seating systems, and head restraints. Demonstration tests for these test procedures are also planned. 
• Continue efforts to upgrade, repair, and calibrate a new family of adult and child crash test dummies for measuring the enhanced dynamic performance requirements for advanced air bags. 
• Execute maintenance and interagency agreements to operate and staff the tire testing facility at San Angelo, Texas under the tire quality grading program, including traction testing of tires used on vehicles equipped with conventional and ABS brake systems.

DEFECTS INVESTIGATION 

• Implement new initiatives required by the TREAD Act, which include the development and acquisition of a data warehouse that will incorporate the additional information to be received under the early warning requirements. The new data warehouse will provide statisticians and analysts with automated tools to promptly identify potential safety issues and concerns that should be investigated. 
• Strengthen the Defects Investigation Program to enhance the following: screening of potential safety-related issues; petition analysis; investigations, including more extensive examination of complaint vehicles and equipment; site inspections of vehicle crashes; testing of vehicles and equipment; surveys of vehicle owners; and intensified recall oversight to ensure that the scope of each recall is appropriate and the remedy and completion rate are adequate. 
• Expand the public’s access to ODI files through the Internet. Continue outreach programs to encourage the reporting of safety-related problems in motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment, and promote utilization by the public of the Auto Safety Hotline and the agency’s web site.

ODOMETER FRAUD 

• Initiate new cooperative agreements with two States to supplement NHTSA’s Odometer Fraud Program with State law enforcement agents and award funding to two additional States to initiate or enhance their odometer fraud programs.

HIGHWAY SAFETY

There are three program offices in Traffic Safety Programs (TSP). The Office of Traffic Injury Control Programs (OTICP) provides national leadership in planning and developing programs directed at preventing and reducing highway crashes and resulting deaths, injuries, and economic costs. OTICP develops, coordinates, and facilitates the execution of demonstration programs, program development, technology development, technical assistance and information transfer activities aimed at improving traffic injury programs throughout the country. The Office of Communications and Outreach (OCO) is responsible for the development, marketing, and promotion of public information campaigns and materials in support of TSP programs. OCO develops programs implemented with public and private sector organizations, other federal agencies, and elected officials in support of TSP’s goals and objectives. This office also supports coalition-building activities at the National, State, and local levels. The Office of Research and Traffic Records (ORTR) conducts research, demonstration, and evaluation programs supporting traffic safety programs related to driver, passenger, pedestrian, and cyclist behavior. ORTR also develops, tests, and evaluates countermeasures aimed at reducing or eliminating unsafe actions and crash generating situations. The office also develops and coordinates a program of research and demonstration, and also technology and information transfer related to traffic records, driver licensing and driver education.

FY 2003 HIGHLIGHTS 

IMPAIRED DRIVING PREVENTION  

• Analyze state enforcement project evaluations completed in five States, and complete enforcement demonstrations in two additional States. Promote the best practices that these evaluations produced. 
• Develop strong support for enforcement of impaired driving laws and for swift and severe sanctions for offenders, through work with national organizations and the criminal justice system. 
• Implement programs focusing on high risk groups: youth, 21-34 year olds, and repeat and high BAC offenders. 
• Support State legislative initiatives to reduce impaired driving, such as 0.08 BAC and graduated licensing. 
• Continue research, program implementation and training on drug-impaired driving.

OCCUPANT PROTECTION 

• Implement incentive and innovative grant programs and promote “best practices” programs to States. 
• Continue cooperative agreements with national organizations critical to the Buckle Up America campaign including special outreach efforts to high-risk populations, and expand occupant protection initiatives with racially and ethnically diverse populations. 
• Conduct semiannual Operation ABC mobilizations; design and promote intensive enforcement programs to States through partnerships with enforcement organizations. 
• Conduct research and collect nationally representative data on the use of occupant protection devices to guide development of occupant protection countermeasures. 
• Implement the Booster Seat Education Plan as required by the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act.

PEDESTRIAN, BICYCLE AND MOTORCYCLE SAFETY 

• Reinvigorate the Partnership for a Walkable America and implement the National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety. 
• Collaborate with National Bicycle Safety Network partners and others to implement the National Strategies for Advancing Bicycle Safety. 
• Implement recommendations from the National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety in collaboration with diverse organizations.

TRAFFIC LAW ENFORCEMENT 

• Implement recommendations from Traffic Safety in the Next Millennium: Law Enforcement Strategies, build support for traffic safety in diverse communities, and emphasize general traffic enforcement approaches though law enforcement in-service training to enhance traffic safety and improve domestic security. 
• Continue speed setting and enforcement demonstration projects.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES 

• Promote the EMS Agenda for the Future to care for motor vehicle crash victims. 
• Support national implementation of wireless E9-1-1. 
• Demonstrate strategies for EMS and public health, specifically with regard to preparation for terrorism response.

HIGHWAY SAFETY RESEARCH 

• Provide the scientific basis for NHTSA’s national leadership in highway safety through studies of driver, passenger, and pedestrian and cyclist attitudes and behaviors, the circumstances and situations of crashes, and the most effective ways they can be reduced. 
• Determine the causes of crashes, identify target populations, acquire the research for developing countermeasures, and evaluate the effectiveness of programs that will reduce traffic deaths, injuries, and associated costs.

EMERGING ISSUES 

• Address emerging traffic safety issues such as older drivers, fatigue, distracted drivers and inattention, via public education initiatives.

TRAFFIC RECORDS, DRIVER LICENSING & DRIVER EDUCATION 

• Improve timeliness, accuracy, completeness, and accessibility of State Transportation Safety Information System data.

NATIONAL DRIVER REGISTER 

• Maintain an index of individuals whose licenses to operate motor vehicles have been suspended or who have been convicted of certain serious traffic offenses. State licensing officials and authorized users query the NDR to determine license eligibility.

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

There are four major programs in Research and Analysis. The Crashworthiness Research Program includes Crashworthiness and the National Transportation Biomechanics Research Center. Together they promote transportation safety through continuing research on vehicle safety, vehicle aggressivity and compatibility, human injury criteria, and by improving occupant safety in crashes involving passenger cars, light trucks, and vans through developing advanced air bags and other crash countermeasures and using a family of dummies for safety performance evaluation. The Crash Avoidance Research Program focuses on passenger and commercial vehicle research including visibility, directional control and braking, and rollover stability. The program also includes use of advanced technologies under the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) of the Department’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) program. The agency also undertakes driver-vehicle safety research including human factors research to evaluate the safety potential and effectiveness of various collision avoidance countermeasures. The National Center for Statistics and Analysis collects and analyzes high quality, large-scale vehicle crash databases that are used by both public and private sectors to support critical highway traffic safety, vehicle regulatory, and safety recall programs. The Vehicle Research and Test Center serves as NHTSA’s in-house R&D test laboratory.

FY 2003 HIGHLIGHTS 

CRASHWORTHINESS

• Conduct research in support of upgrading safety standards for frontal crash protection, side impact protection, roof crush protection, ejection prevention, fuel system integrity, and child safety. 
• Develop test devices and test procedures for compliance testing under the above standards. 
• Conduct research to address the issue of vehicle compatibility by analyzing the crash data and fleet characteristics, developing test procedures to evaluate a vehicle’s compatibility within the fleet, and by testing and evaluating the effectiveness of developed countermeasures. 
• Conduct research on advanced occupant protection systems utilizing promising new technologies and state-of-the-art hardware developments.

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION BIOMECHANICS RESEARCH CENTER

• Conduct research to develop suitable injury criteria for upgrades of existing safety standards or any future standards in frontal crash protection, side crash protection, rollover protection, and improved child safety. 
• Collect and analyze human injury data by conducting in-depth investigations of vehicle crashes and develop injury measures and correlate them to the risk of injury in crashes. 
• Develop, test and evaluate a family of dummies for safety evaluations of vehicles and federalize them for incorporation into safety regulations.

CRASH AVOIDANCE RESEARCH

• Conduct analyses of crash data with the objective of identifying causal factors and for the development of suitable countermeasures for crash prevention. 
• Conduct research in support of upgrading standards to improve vehicle braking, directional and rollover stability, tires, and vehicle lighting and signaling. 
• Conduct driver-vehicle safety research related to driving performance, driver work load demands, driver distraction issues, the safety impact of in-vehicle devices on safe driving, and driver behavioral research including driver alertness, driver distraction, and driver work load management. 
• Conduct research into the measurement of driver cognitive distraction while using a variety of in-vehicle technologies and determine the consequences for driver behavior and performance. 
• Conduct research using intelligent technologies (such as pre-crash sensors, and sensors for proximity and relative speed for crash prevention) to develop countermeasures for enhancing crash avoidance capabilities of light and heavy vehicles.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS

• Collect data related to fatalities and injuries (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) in vehicle crashes and analyze vital information related to automobile crashes, occupant injuries and injury mechanism (National Automotive Sampling System), especially as they relate to newly introduced technologies, such as advanced occupant restraint systems to minimize risks to out-of-position and small statured occupants, and identify crash causal factors. 
• Collect data used extensively by other parts of NHTSA to develop overall policies and priorities, target risk reduction programs, shape and support regulations, and investigate defects. 
• Use Crash Outcome Data Evaluation Systems (CODES) grants to link crash and health care data to study crash outcomes. 
• Use the latest technologies to improve the efficiency in data collection and to improve the quality and quantity of data collected. 
• Maintain a national network of analysts and crash investigators, which allows NHTSA to mount special studies quickly and cost-effectively. 
• Collect, analyze, and report on all of the metrics used to track NHTSA’s performance under GPRA.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

There are three programs in General Administration. The Program Evaluation Program determines the effectiveness of vehicle regulations and highway safety programs. The Strategic Planning Program develops, updates, and publishes the agency’s Strategic Plan and studies of emerging problems as a basis for setting agency policy, in addition to providing a wide range of planning support to agency programs. The Economic Analysis Program develops methods to quantify the economic consequences of motor vehicle injuries in forms suitable for agency use in problem identification and evaluation, regulatory analysis, priority setting, and policy analysis.

FY 2003 HIGHLIGHTS 

PROGRAM EVALUATION

• Evaluate the public response to child passenger safety measures, including how people use Universal Child Restraint Anchorages, and use of booster seats and belts by children age 5-9. 
• Continue to measure the effects of changes to improve air bag technology and reduce their risks to children and other occupants. Evaluate public awareness of air bag safety warnings. 
• Continue to analyze the effectiveness of the antilock brake systems in reducing crashes of heavy trucks, and the maintenance costs and durability of these systems. 
• Continue to evaluate the effectiveness of rear-impact guards for truck trailers in reducing harm to passenger vehicles that collide with the trailers. 
• Analyze the cost of upper-interior head injury protection (FMVSS 201) and upper-interior air bags. 
• Continue the evaluation of side impact protection upgrade (FMVSS 214).

STRATEGIC PLANNING

• Serve as the agency lead for coordinating and developing plans to support agency initiatives requiring total agency participation. 
• Study, recommend, and implement organizational improvement activities to improve agency efficiency.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

• Research and develop methods for quantifying economic and societal injury outcomes. 
• Adapt findings from the updated report on the overall cost to society of motor vehicle injuries to focus on determining the societal burden for specific traffic safety problems and issues. 
• Streamline the complex economic calculations used to develop the societal burden report, so that estimates of societal burden can be updated more frequently.

HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY GRANTS

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) authorized funding for numerous highway safety grant programs for the States in FY 2003, including the following programs under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: the Section 402 State and Community Grant Program provides for a coordinated national highway safety program. All States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Trust Territories, and Indian Nations are provided with formula grants to encourage and facilitate implementation of effective programs to improve highway safety. The Section 405 Occupant Protection Incentive Grant Program awards grants to States that adopt or demonstrate specific laws and programs, such as primary safety belt use laws and special traffic enforcement programs, to increase seat belt and child safety seat use. The Section 410 Alcohol-Impaired Driving Incentive Grant Program encourages States to enact stiffer laws and implement stronger programs to detect and remove impaired drivers from the roads. The Section 411 State Highway Safety Data Improvements Incentive Grant Program encourages States to take effective actions to improve the timeliness, accuracy, completeness, uniformity, and accessibility of their highway safety data.

FY 2003 HIGHLIGHTS 

SECTION 402 
STATE AND COMMUNITY GRANTS 

• Provide formula grants to support performance-based highway safety programs in every State, territory, and the Indian Nations for the purpose of reducing highway crashes, deaths, and injuries. 
• Support programs, developed and managed by the States, to address their highway safety goals, performance measures, and strategic plans. 
• Support national priority programs, such as encouraging proper use of occupant protection devices; reducing alcohol and drug-impaired driving; reducing motorcycle crashes; improving police traffic services; improving emergency medical services and trauma care systems; increasing pedestrian and bicyclist safety; improving traffic record systems; and improving roadway safety.

SECTION 405
OCCUPANT PROTECTION INCENTIVE GRANTS 

• Provide grants that will encourage States to pass stronger laws and implement effective measures to increase safety belt and child safety seat use, such as passing primary enforcement laws; minimum fines or penalty points for seat belt and child protection law violations; and stepped-up police enforcement of occupant protection laws.

SECTION 410
ALCOHOL-IMPAIRED DRIVING INCENTIVE GRANTS 

• Provide grants that will encourage States to pass stronger laws and implement effective measures to reduce safety problems stemming from driving while impaired by alcohol, such as administrative driver license actions within stated time frames; graduated licensing systems; and young adult drinking and driving prevention programs. Supplemental grants are given for meeting additional criteria.

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