Performance Goals

Index | Statement from the Administrator | Overview | Performance Goals | Miscellaneous

Vehicle Safety | Behavioral Safety | Environmental Stewardship

Vehicle Safety

This request would allow DOT to reduce highway fatalities by improving the safety performance of motor vehicles through issuing safety standards, investigating defects, and conducting research. These improvements promote greater crash avoidance and crashworthiness of vehicles, thereby making motor vehicle crashes increasingly preventable and survivable.

VEHICLE SAFETY Summary
(Dollars in Thousands)

1 In FY 2004, funding displayed in brackets is included in the FHWA appropriation.

FY 2005 HIGHLIGHTS

RULEMAKING

• Safety Standards Support — Conduct testing to provide support to upgrade requirements for head restraints, seating systems, side impact protection, and headlamp glare. Provide support to improve door locks, school bus safety, side child occupant protection, roof crush resistance, ejection mitigation, tire safety and mirror systems for commercial vehicles. Conduct cost and leadtime studies and review safety standards.
• New Car Assessment Program — Conduct testing to provide consumer information on ratings for frontal and side crashworthiness, child safety seat Ease-of-Use, and rollover static and dynamic tests and braking. Improve vehicle safety consumer information and increase outreach efforts.
• Theft — Provide support for a legislatively required report on information regarding theft and recovery of motor vehicles (including passenger cars, light trucks, and multi-purpose vehicles), comprehensive insurance coverage, and actions taken by insurers to reduce motor vehicle thefts.

ENFORCEMENT

• Vehicle Safety Compliance — Verify compliance of new vehicles and equipment with the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to support reduction of motor vehicle fatality rates. Conduct heavy truck brake testing and develop new test procedures in response to TREAD Act rulemaking.
• Defects Investigation — Utilize Artemis to increase NHTSA's ability to identify defects earlier by using early warning data submitted by manufacturers and allowing increased public access to vehicle safety information.
• 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.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

• Safety Systems — Conduct research to support the development and/or upgrade of safety standards for compatibility, frontal crash protection, advanced air bag systems, side crash protection, roof crush protection, ejection prevention, fuel system integrity, and child safety.
• Biomechanics — Continue experimental, analytical, and field research efforts to enhance basic understanding of prevalent injury mechanisms; develop injury criteria and performance limits for injury detection and control; and design, test, evaluate, and document a family of advanced crash test dummies for incorporation into safety regulations.
• Heavy Vehicles — Continue research to support upgrading safety standards for braking and indirect visibility of heavy trucks.
• Crash Avoidance Initiative —Conduct evaluation of driver assistance technologies, performance standards, and consumer education materials to ensure that the maximum safety benefits are derived from new electronic technologies that will radically change the design and performance of automobiles over the next 10 years.
• Pneumatic Tire Research — Research and test new tire strength and debeading test methods to support passenger car tire standards.
• Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) — Collect national highway fatality data that are vital to NHTSA's ability to identify life-threatening problems on the Nation's highways. Provide the essential metrics for determining the real-world effectiveness of countermeasures aimed at reducing deaths.
• Early Fatality Notification Reporting System - (Fast FARS) — Develop and implement a system to provide near real time counts of the number of fatalities resulting from motor vehicle crashes that will provide timely information on progress toward meeting National and State highway safety improvement goals.
• National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) — Provide data critical to researchers in developing and monitoring motor vehicle safety systems that save thousands of lives each year.
• Data Analysis Program — Conduct essential analytical projects, provide responses to requests from the public, and generate metrics that enable NHTSA to track progress toward meeting national goals.
• State Data Program — Provide essential crash information not available from other data collection programs, filling an important gap by permitting the agency to further understand crash outcome information.
• Special Crash Investigations (SCI) — Identify and document the effects of rapidly changing vehicle technologies to assess their impacts on real-world motor vehicle crashes.
• Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (MVCCS) — Collect up-to-date, real-world, crash causation data to identify and understand motor vehicle crash factors that are integral to developing and evaluating crash preventing countermeasures.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

• International Harmonization of Vehicle Safety Standards — Foster cooperative activities on bilateral and multilateral bases to learn best practices leading to the development and adoption of globally harmonized vehicle safety regulations.
• Program Evaluation — Provide objective quantitative information on the effectiveness, benefits, and costs of existing regulations and programs and continue evaluating antilock brake systems for heavy trucks, advanced frontal air bags, side air bags, head protection air bags, motorcycle brakes, headlamp glare problems, and child passenger safety measures.
• Strategic Planning —Use strategic planning as a management tool for setting organizational direction and developing action plans to accomplish the agency's mission to reduce highway-related fatalities and injuries.
• Economic Analysis — Promote the dissemination of the Functional Capacity Index (FCI), that measures the long-term outcomes of injuries, to Federal and academic partners.