Products Liability Law Daily Wrap Up, NOTICES—REPORTS AND STUDIES—NHTSA extends comment period for state electronic data collection grant program, (Jun 17, 2022)

By WK Editorial Staff

The agency has given the public and stakeholders an additional 45 days to comment on the request-for-information notice.

In response to a request from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has extended the comment period on a request-for-information (RFI) notice seeking comments on NHTSA’s efforts to develop and implement a new discretionary grant program to increase the number of states, U.S. territories, and Indian tribes electronically transferring their motor vehicle crash data to the agency. The comment period was originally scheduled to end on May 31, 2022 [see Products Liability Law Daily’s May 19, 2022 analysis]. It will now end on July 15, 2022 (NHTSA Notice, 87 FR 29999, May 17, 2022).

RFI notice. On April 29, 2022, pursuant to Section 24108(d) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, NHTSA published an RFI notice seeking comment on its plans to develop a new state electronic data collection program that requires the agency to develop and implement a new discretionary grant program. The new grant program is to provide support to states to upgrade and standardize their state crash data systems to enable electronic data collection, intrastate data sharing, and electronic data transfer to NHTSA. The new program will increase the accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of the data, including data relating to fatalities involving vulnerable road users. Eligible states may use these grants for (1) the costs of equipment to upgrade a statewide crash data repository; (2) adoption of electronic crash reporting by law enforcement agencies; and (3) increasing alignment of state crash data with the latest Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria. The comment period for the RFI notice was scheduled to end on May 31, 2022.

Extension request. GHSA requested a 60-day extension of the comment period, explaining that the RFI notice addressed several complex topics that would require conducting in-depth review and analysis to develop informed feedback. GHSA suggested that the additional time would allow it to conduct the detailed review of the notice and develop appropriate responses. The requestor stated that the additional time would allow for more fully developed feedback to support the agency's next steps.

Agency decision. NHTSA determined that GHSA provided sufficient justification for an extension and that the extension was consistent with the public interest. NHTSA agreed that allowing additional time for the public and its stakeholders to provide comments to the questions raised in the RFI notice would better inform NHTSA regarding the various program areas and topics discussed in the notice. Therefore, NHTSA granted the request to extend the comment period, but extended it for only 45 days. According to the agency, a 45-day extension appropriately balanced NHTSA's interest in providing the public with sufficient time to comment on the questions raised in the RFI notice with its interest to pursue development of this program in a timely manner and its ability to present proposals at the 2022 Traffic Records Forum, scheduled for August 7-10, 2022.

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