Auto crashes kill or injure millions of people each year. Information about where and why such crashes occur is important in reducing this toll, both for identifying particular hazards and for planning safety efforts at the state and federal levels. Differences in the quality of state traffic data from state to state, however, affect the usability of data for these purposes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administers a grant program to help states improve the safety data systems that collect and analyze crash data from police and sheriff’s offices and other agencies, and the Congress is considering whether to reauthorize and expand the program. The Senate Appropriations Committee directed GAO to study state systems and the grant program. Accordingly, GAO examined (1) the quality of state crash information, (2) the activities states undertook to improve their traffic records systems and any progress made, and (3) NHTSA’s oversight of the grant program. The 9 state traffic safety data systems we reviewed varied widely in the degree to which they met NHTSA’s six recommended quality criteria for crash information.8 None of the state data systems we reviewed appeared to meet all of the criteria, which affected the usefulness and reliability of their data. For example, while NHTSA’s timeliness criteria call for data to be available to users preferably within 90 days, the states we visited had data available from within 1 month to 18 months. Delayed access to crash data diminishes the ability to identify current and emerging roadway hazards or other safety problems and to carry out effective planning efforts, such as the development of annual state highway safety plans. Likewise, while 4 states completed or checked crash report data for accuracy by linking the data to information in driver or vehicle licensing files, 3 states had no accuracy checks at all. Since crash data are used mainly by states for highway safety planning, allocating resources, and measuring efforts toward safety goals, the information states collected varied—reflecting individual state needs. In addition, some states did not collect information such as vehicle identification numbers (VIN), which are particularly useful in identifying automobile safety concerns. Variations such as these can affect DOT’s ability to make the state-to-state comparisons that are necessary to evaluate past safety problems and develop future policy. For example, a recent DOT-funded national analysis of vehicle braking performance was based on data from only 5 states, because only these states had the required information for the analysis. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting