National Center for Statistics & Analysis (NCSA)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 10% of fatal crashes (3,328) and 18% of injury crashes (421,000) were attributable to distracted driving in 2012. Previous research indicates dedicated law enforcement over a specified period coupled with enforcement-based messaging can reduce observed electronic device use rates. A demonstration, consisting of four high-visibility enforcement (HVE) waves, conducted from April 2010 to April 2011 in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut, saw hand-held phone use drop 32% (from 3.7% to 2.5%) in Syracuse and 57% (from 6.8% to 2.9%) in Hartford (Chaudhary et al., 2014; Cosgrove et al., 2011).

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/2011_N_Survey_of_Speeding_Attitudes_and_Behaviors_TT_811866.pdf

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811730.pdf

The study formed an expert panel to apply the results of the various literature reviews and data collection activities to driver education. The expert panel included representatives from driver education, traffic safety research, general education, and injury prevention areas. During one day, the panel reviewed four topics: (1) the state of driver education in America; (2) research on driver education; (3) best teaching practices for teens; and (4) a working model for a driver training sequence encompassing driver education and graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems. The panel also discussed the potential benefits of more frequent and rigorous testing and more parental involvement in the restricted licensing phase.

This report presents the results of a direct observation study of nighttime (9:30 p.m.- 5:45 a.m.) seatbelt use conducted in Indiana surrounding the 2006 May Mobilization.  Two full Statewide surveys were conducted, one in April and the other in June.  The nighttime survey waves were timed to coincide as closely as possible to daytime surveys conducted for Indiana.

This report reviews the current state of knowledge on Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI). It specifically addresses the rationale for addressing at-risk drinkers, defines SBI, provides examples of how it is implemented, and describes some of the outcomes and implications of using SBI, including its effects on traffic safety. The review was performed by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, with the assistance of Drs. John Higgins-Biddle and Joan Dilonardo.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811811.pdf

This study built upon the work of Blomberg and Cleven (2006) in Arizona, where they developed and pilot-tested the concept of Heed the Speed, a neighborhood-based combination of enforcement, education, and modest engineering designed to reduce vehicle speeds to benefit pedestrian safety. The current program was expanded and applied to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an attempt to determine if reducing speeds in neighborhoods would lead to a reduction in pedestrian-involved crashes.

Background
Research has shown that higher vehicular speeds are related to increased pedestrian injury severity and death. It is unclear, however, if lowering vehicle speeds in residential areas would result in lower frequency of pedestrian-involved crashes. This study built upon the pilot work of Blomberg and Cleven (2006) that tested the Heed the Speed initiative on a small scale in Phoenix and Peoria, Arizona. In that study, it was found that the program significantly reduced vehicle speeds on the road segments where it was implemented.

The current project focused on determining if the enforcement, education, and engineering approaches of the pilot program could be scaled up as a city-based countermeasure that might produce a reduction in the frequency of pedestrian-involved crashes.

The City of Portland and NHTSA worked together to demonstrate the impact of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) in School Zones in Portland, Oregon.  Results showed that the proportion of traffic that exceeded the speed limit by more than 10 mph was reduced by about two thirds when ASE was present, while speeds at comparison schools without ASE were unchanged.

In 1995, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI) were repeat offenders. This study was conducted to update the 1995 estimate, and it determined that since 1995 the proportion of recidivism among drivers arrested for DWI has decreased from 31% to 25%, a decline of 19%. This report describes the methods used for data collection and analysis. The analysis explored emerging trends of recidivism based on data regarding arrests, convictions, and license suspensions. This study also examined the extent to which recidivism prevalence differs based on the look-back period used by the State (i.e., the period of time DWI offenses remain on driver records as prior offenses).

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811991-DWI_Recidivism_in_USA-tsf-rn.pdf

The communities of Hartford, Connecticut, and Syracuse, New York implemented year-long campaigns to test whether NHTSA’s high-visibility enforcement (HVE) model could be applied to reduce two specific forms of distracted driving – driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone or texting. The HVE model applies strong laws, vigorous targeted law enforcement, extensive media that emphasizes the enforcement, and evaluation. Both sites conducted 4 waves of enforcement between April 2010 and April 2011. NHTSA developed and bought TV and radio spots featuring the tag line Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other. Both sites generated ample earned media. Police wrote 100 to 200 citations per 10,000 population for each wave in each site. Driver surveys showed an increase in awareness that cell phone laws were being enforced and recognition of the new slogan. Observed hand-held driver cell phone use dropped from 6.6% to 2.9% in Hartford, and from 3.7% to 2.5% in Syracuse.

Connecticut’s control area also showed a decrease in use (from 6.6% to 5.6%) but not to the same extent as Hartford. New York’s control area had similar decreases (5% to 3%), perhaps a result of separate enforcement campaigns running simultaneously in the control site. The results show that high-visibility enforcement campaigns can reduce the number of people who use hand-held cell phones while driving.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811635_Eval_NHTSA_Distracted_Driving_Demo_Proj_Comm_CT_and_NY.pdf

For many years, New Mexico had one of the highest rates of alcohol-related driving fatalities in the United States. In 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration entered into a cooperative agreement with the New Mexico Department of Transportation. The objective was to demonstrate a process for developing and implementing an enhanced comprehensive impaired driving program, to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities caused by impaired driving. NHTSA contracted with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) to examine New Mexico’s efforts.

Examining New Mexico's Comprehensive Impaired Driving Program

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811630.pdf

This project was conducted to provide an objective measure of the relationship between older adults’ scores on a set of driving assessment tools and their (serious point) violations and crashes over a period of 18 months following the assessments. An additional objective was to compare alternative methods of measuring driver exposure. The assessments were performed on 692 participants age 70 and older who visited one of four Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) field offices between September 2008 and June 2009, under NHTSA contract DTNH22-05-D-05043, Task Order 10. The assessments emphasized cognitive performance domains, specifically visuospatial ability, speed of (visual information) processing, divided attention, visual search, working memory, and response planning or “executive function.” Contrast sensitivity was also measured, as well as simple and choice brake reaction time. The functional assessments examined in this research were computer-based and designed to be self-administered, although the assistance of a test administrator was always available and was required for some measures. Univariate and multivariate analyses examined the relationships between functional assessment scores and safety indicators. The measure of “executive function” (maze performance) was highlighted as a significant predictor of crash risk in the study results. This may be of interest to occupational therapy/driving rehabilitation providers as a potentially valuable tool to support clinical evaluations of fitness to drive; and, to developers of screening tools for early warning of driving impairments, and of products meant to educate older drivers and their families about age-related changes that impact safe driving.

This study explored licensing processes across the UnitedStates and conducted in-depth case studies on four States with novel processes not common nationwide. The project aimed to document benefits and unintended consequences of licensing policies intended to reduce risk for older drivers.

The 2011 National Survey of Speeding Attitudes and Behavior (NSSAB) is the third in a series of surveys on speeding that have provided data to help further the understanding of driving behavior and to contribute to the development of countermeasures and interventions to reduce speeding. Like the previous studies, this survey yields national estimates of behavior and attitudes toward speeding in the United States. The present study differs from the earlier studies in that it developed and used a driver typology based on the pattern of responses across six speeding behavior questions. Cluster analysis identified three distinct groups of drivers with similar overall behavioral tendencies and, among those categorized, 30% are nonspeeders, 40% are sometime speeders, and 30% are speeders. Driver type is a powerful predictor of norms and attitudes toward speeding behavior, speeding countermeasures, experience with sanctions and crash experience. This report details the findings from the 2011 NSSAB, examining the data using the above mentioned driver typology as well as standard demographics. In the final chapter, results from the current study are compared to those of the 2002 NSSAB and the 1997 NSSAB. Using data from over the last 14 years allows us to identify trends in speeding and driving behavior, especially as new technologies such as cell phones become more pervasive in the driving community.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/2011_N_Survey_of_Speeding_Attitudes_and_Behaviors_811865.pdf

A field survey was conducted during spring and summer 2007 to measure travel speeds and prepare nationallyrepresentative speed estimates for all types of motor vehicles on freeways, arterial highways, and collector roads across the United States. Over 10 million vehicle speeds were measured at more than 700 sites included in the geographic cluster sample of 20 primary sampling units (PSUs). Each PSU was a city, county, or group of two or three counties representing combinations of regions of the United States, level of urbanization, and type of topography (flat, hilly, mountainous). Speeds were acquired on randomly drawn road segments on limited access highways, major and minor arterial roads, and collector roads.

 http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811663.pdf

In 2012, 33,561 people were killed in the estimated 5,615,000 police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes; 2,362,000 people were injured; and 3,950,000 crashes resulted in property damage only.   Compared to 2011, this is a 3.3-percent increase in the number of fatalities, and a 5.2-percent increase in the number of police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes, a 6.5-percent increase in the number of people injured, and a 4.6-percent increase in crashes resulting in property damage.  An average of 92 people died each day in motor vehicle crashes in 2012—one every 16 minutes.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812016.pdf

The primary objective of the study was to evaluate products that are designed to prevent children up to 24 months old from being left behind in closed, parked vehicles – a scenario that can result in heat stroke. This preliminary assessment was the first of its kind to evaluate this kind of product. The efficacy of heat stroke prevention technologies in sensing the presence of a child in a child restraint and alerting the caregiver if he or she walks away from the car without removing the child was evaluated. The study also examined the effects of child posture and the time/child movement associated with a typical commute on the efficacy of these devices.

In April 2003, the U. S. General Accounting Office (the name was changed a year later to Government Accountability Office) issued a Report to Congress titled, “Better Guidance Could  Improve Oversight of State Highway Safety Programs” (GAO-03-474).  In April 2004, the National  Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave Regional Administrators an oversight process. 
One component of the process was the Special Management Review (SMR) The SMR is conducted in a State that consistently demonstrates performance worse than the national average and progress less than half of that recorded by the Nation as a whole.  The SMR is one component of NHTSA’s oversight and quality assurance program conducted by its Office of Regional Operations and Program Delivery (ROPD).  It was codified in the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-
LU).
 

http://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/whatsup/SAFETEAweb/MRElements/811520.pdf

The 2012 CIOT mobilization included 49 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than 10,000 law enforcement agencies participated during the two week enforcement period. The mobilization was preceded by earned and paid media alerting the public to the upcoming
seat belt enforcement mobilization.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811989-The_Click_It_or_Ticket_Eval_2012_RN_TSF.pdf

This study used eye tracker technology to monitor where motorcycle riders were looking as they rode over an open road course and a closed course. The purpose of the project was to determine if visual behavior differs between beginner
riders who have received training on sight distance, beginner riders who have not received training, and experienced riders. An additional objective was to develop the data acquisition system necessary to collect these data, and
to demonstrate the feasibility of collecting eye-tracking data on the open road from riders with a variety of experience levels.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811690.pdf

This study investigated the effects of distraction from the use of three types of cell phones: (1) hand-held (HH), (2) portable handsfree (PHF), and (3) integrated hands-free (IHF). Through a naturalistic driving study (NDS), 204 drivers were continuously recorded for an average of 31 days. Only drivers who reported talking on a cell phone while driving at least once per day were recruited. A key feature was that drivers provided their cell phone records for analysis, making this the first NDS to date to combine call and text records with continuous naturalistic driving data. Results show that drivers talked on a cell phone 10.6
percent of the time the vehicle was in operation (28% of all calls and 10% of all text messages occurred while the vehicle was being operated). Talking on a cell phone, of any type, while driving was not associated with an increased safety-critical event (SCE) risk. SCEs comprised crashes, near-crashes, and crash-relevant conflicts. Visual-manual (VM) subtasks performed on an HH cell phone, however, were associated with an increased SCE risk. HH cell phone use in general was thus found to be associated with an increased SCE risk. In contrast, PHF and IHF cell phone use, absent of any VM HH cell phone subtasks, were not found to be associated with an increased SCE risk. However, VM HH cell phone subtasks were frequently observed during hands-free cell phone use. Driver performance when using a cell phone was also investigated through a within-subject comparison. VM HH cell phone subtasks were found to significantly increase the percentage of time drivers took their eyes off the forward roadway, while talking on an HH cell phone significantly decreased the percentage of time drivers took their eyes off the forward roadway. The effects of cell phone use on vehicle control were less pronounced.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NVS/Crash%20Avoidance/Technical%20Publications/2013/811757.pdf

Overall, the analyses did not find evidence that requiring 30 to 60 hours supervised driving practice results in different crash rates for 16- or 17-year-old drivers. With low parental awareness and little or no licensing agency verification, it is difficult to determine whether teenagers drove the minimum number of supervised hours required by their States. Improvements in communications with parents and novice drivers about supervised driving requirements, guidance to parents about the best techniques to provide supervision, and tracking actual hours and conditions of supervised driving would be beneficial.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/traffic_tech/811598.pdf

Traffic Tech

Implications for Highway Safety Program Planning;
In 2005 NHTSA released a study which examined States' breath test refusal rates. Overall, the rates varied dramatically among States, from 5% to 85%.  (An upcoming Research Note updates this data.) The study included interviews in five States to learn about the refusal issue and identify potential solutions for high rates. One strategy that emerged is the use of warrants to obtain blood samples from drivers who refuse to provide breath samples.

This current study, conducted by Preusser Research Group (PRG), documents the use of the search warrant and blood draw approach in four States: Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, and Utah.  PRG conducted interviews with about 15 people, including officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in each of the States. These individuals provided information on policies and procedures, as well as opinions on the warrant process.

About two-thirds (68%) of young drivers 18 to 20 are willing to answer incoming phone calls on some, most, or  all  driving  trips,  and  most  continue  to  drive,  at slightly higher rates than older drivers.

Young drivers 18 to 20 have the highest incidence of self- reported crash or near-crash experiences  compared to all other age groups and the highest incidence of phone involvement at the time of the crash or near-crash.
 

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811611.pdf