[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 226 (Friday, November 24, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67952-67955]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-19831]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[Docket No. FHWA-2006-26125]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments
for New Information Collection
AGENCIES: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation
(DOT).
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The FHWA and the NHTSA invite the public to comment on our
intention to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to
approve a new information collection. This collection is summarized
below under Supplementary Information. We are required to publish this
notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Please submit comments by January 23, 2007.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT DMS Docket Number
FHWA-2006-26125 by any of the following methods:
Web Site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow the instructions for
submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
Fax: (202) 493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Nassif Building, Room PL-401,
Washington, DC, 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level of the
Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room 401
on the plaza level of the Nassif Building,
[[Page 67953]]
400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions concerning the FHWA
Motorcycle Crash Causation Study, please contact Carol Tan, Ph.D,
Office of Safety Research and Development (HRDS), at (202) 493-3315,
Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, Federal Highway
Administration, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA, 22101, between 9:00
a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. For
questions concerning the Pilot Motorcycle Crash Causes and Outcomes
Study, please contact Paul J. Tremont, Ph.D, Office of Behavioral
Safety Research, NTI-131, at (202) 366-5588, National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA), 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC
20590 between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal Holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Motorcycle Crash Causation Study and Pilot Motorcycle Crash
Causes and Outcomes Study.
Background: In 2004, 4,008 motorcyclists were killed and 76,000
were injured in traffic crashes in the United States, increases of 8
percent, and 14 percent respectively from 2003. Per vehicle mile
traveled in 2003, motorcyclists were about 32 times more likely to die,
and 6 times more likely to be injured in a motor vehicle crash than
were passenger car occupants. Per 100 million miles traveled, in 2003,
motorcyclist fatalities were 57 percent higher than they were in 1993.
This compares with a decrease of 17.8 percent in fatality rates for
occupants in passenger vehicles over the same period. These data show
that the motorcycle crash problem is becoming more severe.\1\
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\1\ More detailed information on motorcycle crashes can be found
in Traffic Safety Facts--Motorcycles, published by NHTSA and
available on its Web site at: http://www.-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/Rpts/2006/810606.pdf.
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Congress has recognized this problem and directed the Department of
Transportation to conduct research that will provide a better
understanding of the causes of motorcycle crashes. Specifically, in
Section 5511 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) Pub. L. 109-
59, Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation to provide grants
to the Oklahoma Transportation Center (OTC) for the purpose of
conducting a comprehensive, in-depth motorcycle crash causation study
that employs the common international methodology for in-depth
motorcycle crash investigation developed by the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).\2\ SAFETEA-LU authorized
$1,408,000 for each of fiscal years 2006 and 2007, but provided for an
equal match by the Grantee (Sections 5511 and 5101). The Secretary
delegated authority to FHWA for the Motorcycle Crash Causation Grants
under Section 5511 (71 FR 30831).
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\2\ The OECD methodology may be obtained by sending a request to
[email protected].
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Coordination of FHWA Main Study and NHTSA Pilot Study
Prior to the SAFETEA-LU directive by Congress to administer a full-
scale study of motorcycle crash causes, NHTSA awarded a contract to
conduct a pilot study of Motorcycle Crash Causes and Outcomes. The
intent of this pilot study is to examine appropriate applications of
the OECD methodology to motorcycle crashes in the United States. This
pilot test is needed before any full-scale study could be conducted
because the OECD methodology has not previously been implemented in the
United States, and also because this methodology incorporates some
options for collecting crash and control sample data that are affected
by logistical and budget constraints.
The authorization of funds by Congress for a full-scale motorcycle
crash study provided an opportunity for the NHTSA pilot study to become
closely coordinated with the FHWA main study. As a result, the pilot
study will test the procedures FHWA will consider using as it
implements the OECD methodology. Additionally, it may be possible for
the pilot study to transition directly into the main study, thereby
allowing the main study to avoid many startup costs (e.g., site
selection, training, coding manual development, data form development,
etc.) that it otherwise would have incurred. This will allow the main
study to capture a larger sample of crashes with the available funding.
Recognizing these advantages, the Department of Transportation intends
to submit a single request to OMB for approval of both of these
studies. This notice is the first step in that combined approval
request.
Project Working Group Guidance
A project working group consisting of representatives from the
motorcycle industry and from the motorcycle community was formed to
provide input into the study design. A working group meeting was held
in Denver on June 15-16, 2006. At this meeting, consensus was reached
that all the relevant OECD variables would be captured in both the
NHTSA pilot and FHWA full-scale studies, that some of these variables
would need to be modified to conform to U.S. requirements, and that
other variables would need to be added to provide necessary data
related to the U.S. roadway environment.
Proposed Data Acquisition Methodology
Use of Parallel and Complementary Procedures
The OECD describes two complementary procedures to be performed for
acquiring the data needed to understand the causes of motorcycle
crashes. The first of these is the traditional in-depth crash
investigation that focuses on the sequence of events leading up to the
crash, and on the motorcycle, rider, and environmental characteristics
that may have been relevant to the crash. The second procedure, known
as the case-control procedure, complements the first. It requires the
acquisition of matched control data to allow for a determination of the
extent to which rider and driver characteristics, and pre-crash factors
observed in the crash vehicles, are present in similarly-at-risk
control vehicles.
Such a dual approach offers specific advantages to the
understanding of crashes and the development of countermeasures. The
in-depth study of the crash by itself allows for analysis of the events
antecedent to the crash, some of which, if removed or altered, could
result in a change in subsequent events that would have led to a non-
crash, or reduced crash severity outcome. For example, an in-depth
crash investigation may reveal that an automobile approaching an
intersection was in a lane designated for straight through traffic
only, but the motorist proceeded to make a left turn from that lane
into the path of an oncoming motorcycle. That finding can, by itself,
be used to develop countermeasures, and does not require matched
control data. However, acquiring matched control data from similarly-
at-risk riders and drivers provides additional critical information
about crash causes that cannot be obtained if only crashes are
examined. The main purpose of acquiring matched data is to allow for
inferences to be made regarding risk factors for crash causes. A brief
explanation is provided here so that those less familiar with case-
control procedures will understand the
[[Page 67954]]
advantage of acquiring controls.\3\ Consider a hypothetical situation
where it is observed that the proportion of motorcycle riders involved
in crashes that have a positive Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is the same
as the proportion of matched (similarly-at-risk) control motorcycle
riders not involved in crashes. And assume that the proportion of
passenger-vehicle motorists who crash with motorcycles at a positive
BAC is greater than matched control passenger-vehicle motorists. These
data considered together would suggest that for crashes involving
passenger vehicles and motorcycles, alcohol is a bigger risk factor for
passenger vehicle drivers than it is for motorcycle riders. That is,
the relative risk of crash involvement attributable to alcohol in
motorcycle-automobile crashes is greater for passenger-vehicle
motorists than for motorcyclists. Other risk factors for crashes (i.e.,
age, gender, riding and driving experience, fatigue level) for both
motorcyclists and motorists can also be examined in this manner. If
scaled interval measurements of risk factor levels are obtained (for
example, if the level of alcohol is measured, not just its presence or
absence), then it becomes possible to calculate functions showing how
risk changes with changes in the variable of interest. Such risk
functions are highly useful in the development of countermeasures.\4\
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\3\ This being a study of crashes involving motorcycles, data
will be acquired from both crash-involved motorcycles and also motor
vehicles involved in those crashes as countermeasures may be
developed separately for each that could lead to a reduction in
crashes involving motorcycles. Similarly, when control data are
acquired, data from similarly-at-risk motorcycle rider controls and
similarly-at-risk automobile driver controls will also be acquired.
This way a balanced picture of the causes of crashes involving
motorcycles and other vehicles will emerge.
\4\ Certainly other outcomes besides the one presented are
possible, and other comparisons are of interest. For example, it
would be useful to compare crash-involved motorcyclists to non-crash
involved motorcyclists and crash-involved passenger vehicle
motorists to non-crash involved passenger-vehicle motorists. These
comparisons would allow for estimates of changes in relative risks
for riders and drivers independently.
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Issues Related to Sampling
Characteristics of the Crash Sample
To properly acquire in-depth crash data, it is necessary to find a
location in the country that experiences the full range of motorcycle
crash types that occur under a wide range of conditions and with a wide
range of motorcycle rider characteristics. The location must also have
a sufficiently high frequency of motorcycle crashes to allow
acquisition of the crash data in a reasonable amount of time. It is
anticipated that it will be possible to find a single location meeting
these requirements.
It is not necessary that the crash types observed (or other
composite indices or parameters of interest) be drawn from a nationally
representative sample, because it is not the intent of FHWA to make
projections of the national incidence of the causes of crashes
involving motorcycles from this study. Rather, the focus will be on
identifying the antecedents and risk factors associated with motorcycle
crashes. If it is deemed necessary, FHWA and NHTSA may utilize their
alternative databases that incorporate certain of the key variables
that will be acquired in this study, and those databases could be used
in conjunction with this study's data to make national estimates of
population parameters of interest.\5\
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\5\ There is a lengthy precedent for studying crashes using
case-control methods including the Grand Rapids study, (Borkenstein,
R.F., Crowther, F.R., Shumate, R.P., Ziel, W.B. & Zylman, R. (1974).
The Role of the Drinking Driver in Traffic Accidents (The Grand
Rapids Study). Blutalkohol, 11, Supplement 1), and of course the
Hurt study, (Hurt, H.H., Jr., Ouellet, J.V., and Thom, D.R. (1981).
Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of
Countermeasures Volume I: Technical Report).
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In addition, the crash investigations will be conducted on-scene,
while the involved operators and vehicles are still in place. This
provides access to physical data that is less disturbed by rescue and
clean up activities. It also facilitates the collection of interview
data while memories are unaffected. This quick-response approach is
most effective when a census of applicable crashes is selected for
inclusion.
Characteristics of the Control Sample
While the occurrence of a crash involving a motorcycle in the study
site is sufficient for it to be selected into the study, selecting the
similarly-at-risk controls is not as straightforward. The OECD
recommends several options for acquiring matched controls including
interviewing motorcyclists who may be filling up at nearby gas
stations, taking videos of motorcyclists who pass the crash scenes, and
interviewing motorcyclists at the location of the crash location at the
same time of day, same day of week, and same direction of travel. The
first of these methods suffers from the shortcoming that a rider or
motorist filling his fuel tank is not presented with the same risks, in
the same setting, as is the crash-involved rider and motorist. To
illustrate, consider a motorcycle rider who is hit from the rear by a
passenger vehicle motorist on a Friday night at 1:00 a.m. There is a
reasonable chance that alcohol is involved in this crash, but to
estimate the relative risk it will not help to measure the BAC of
passenger vehicle motorists (and motorcyclists) at a nearby gas
station. Passenger-vehicle motorists and motorcyclists will need to be
sampled at the location of the crash on the same day of the week, at
the same hour, and from the same travel direction. Even if the
suspected risk factor is not alcohol, but some other variable (e.g.,
distraction associated with cell phone use), it is still highly
advantageous to acquire the comparison data at the crash locations
(matched on time and direction), rather than somewhere else.
Using the second method mentioned above, acquiring the risk sample
by taking video at the crash scenes provides a similarly-at-risk pool,
and it also allows for many controls to be acquired at low cost. Its
chief disadvantage is that it does not allow capture of some of the key
risk factors for crashes (e.g., BAC), while others (e.g., fatigue) may
be very difficult to capture. However, some risk factors could be
acquired later by contacting the riders and drivers if license tag
numbers are recorded, and so this method could be used to supplement
the safety zone interview (described below).
The final method, the voluntary safety research interview, involves
setting up a safety zone at the crash location, one week later at the
same time of day, and asking those drivers and motorcyclists who pass
through to volunteer in a study. With this method, Certificates of
Confidentiality are presented to each interviewed driver and rider and
immunity is provided from arrest. The main advantage of this method is
that the key variables that are thought to affect relative crash risk
can be acquired from drivers and riders who are truly similarly-at-
risk. A final decision on the means of acquiring control data has not
been made.
Information Proposed for Collection
The OECD protocol includes the following number of variables for
each aspect of the investigation:
Administrative log: 28
Accident typology/configuration: 9
Environmental factors: 35
Motorcycle mechanical factors: 146
Motorcycle dynamics: 32
Other vehicle mechanical factors: 9
Other vehicle dynamics: 18
Human factors: 51
Personal protective equipment: 34
Contributing environmental factors: 8
Contributing vehicle factors: 13
Contributing motorcycle factors: 57
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Contributing human factors: 50
Contributing overall factors: 2
Note that multiple copies of various data forms will be completed
as the data on each crash-involved vehicle and person and each control
vehicle and person are acquired. This increases the number of variables
above the sum of what is presented above. There are also diagrams and
photographs that are essential elements of each investigation that are
entered into the database. In prior OECD implementations, about 2,000
data elements in total were recorded for each crash.
Estimated Burden Hours for Information Collection
Frequency: This is a one time study.
Respondents: This study will be based on all crashes occurring
within the sampling area; however, this burden estimate is based on
what we know about fatal crashes. The plan calls for data to be
captured from up to 1200 crashes with motorcycle involvement, and for
all surviving crash-involved riders and drivers to be interviewed. Two
control riders will be interviewed for each crash-involved
motorcyclist, and one rider and one driver will be interviewed for each
rider and motorist in multi-vehicle crashes. Passengers accompanying
crash-involved riders and passenger-vehicle drivers will also be
interviewed. The following table shows the sampling plan and estimated
number of interviews assuming 1200 crashes are investigated.\6\
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\6\ The final crash sample size will depend on the rate at which
crashes can be acquired in the selected site(s) and other matters
related to logistics and the final budget. However, the study will
acquire crashes on a sample size that exceeds the requirements of
the OECD methodology, and will be of sufficient size to meet the
goals of the study.
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Maximum total crashes to be investigated is 1200.
Crash Interviews
Single vehicle motorcycle crashes = 540
Multi-vehicle (2-vehicle) motorcycle crashes (660*2) = 1320
Passenger interviews motorcycle (.10* 540 + .10*660) = 120
Passenger interviews cars (.68*660) = 449
Total Crash Interviews (540+1320+120+449) = 2429
Control interviews
Controls for single vehicle motorcycle crashes (2*540) = 1080
Controls for multi-vehicle motorcycle crashes (1*660 + 1*660) =
1320
Passenger Interviews = 0
Total Control Interviews = 2400
Grand Total Crash plus Control Interviews (2429+2400) = 4829
Estimated Average Burden per Interviewee: Crash interviews are
estimated to require about 15 minutes per individual interviewed To the
extent possible, crash interviews will be collected at the scene,
although it is likely that some follow-ups will be needed to get
completed interviews from crash involved individuals. Control
individuals' interviews will be completed in a single session and are
expected to require about 10 minutes per individual.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: Burden hours estimates are
based on the total of 2,429 crash interviews to be conducted at an
average length of 15 minutes each and 2,400 control interviews to be
conducted at an average length of 10 minutes each for a total one-time
burden on the public of 60,435 minutes or 1007.25 hours.
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed
collection is necessary for FHWA's and NHSTA performance; (2) the
accuracy of the estimated burden, (3) ways for the FHWA and NHTSA 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: November 15, 2006.
James R. Kabel,
Chief, Management Programs and Analysis Division.
[FR Doc. E6-19831 Filed 11-22-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-22-P