Guideline Development Process

The development of the Guideline for Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MUCC) is a public/private collaborative effort of the highway and traffic safety community. The process is being sponsored by the NAGHSR, FHWA, and NHTSA. Its objective is to provide for the greatest possible input from the highway and traffic safety community, so that the Guideline is perceived not as a product of any one organization, but as something the entire community can claim ownership of. It will not result in any rulemaking on the part of the Federal agencies involved.

The following steps have been accomplished or are planned in the development of the Guideline:

A task group of crash data experts and users from within NHTSA and FHWA with participation from crash data experts from the States of Maryland and Virginia, drafted a "straw model" Guideline which served as a starting point. The elements considered were drawn from a data set presented at a workshop on crash data at the 22nd International Forum on Traffic Records & Highway Safety Information Systems/5th NHTSA Conference on the Analysis of State Highway Safety Data held in July 1996.

The NAGHSR Executive Board endorsed the process and formed a team of state and local experts in the collection, processing, and use of crash data.

The NAGHSR "expert team" met with the task group to review the draft straw model, and developed the Draft Guideline for Minimum Standardized Crash Data Reporting, which was published jointly by NAGHSR, NHTSA, and FHWA in June 1997.

The draft Guideline was circulated to the following membership groups in the traffic and highway safety community for review and input:

• National Association of Governors' Highway Safety Representatives
• American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
• American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA)
• Commercial Vehicle State Administrations (CVSA)
• State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors' Association (STIPDA)
• Emergency Medical Services State Directors
• Transportation Research Board's Traffic Records and Accident Analysis Subcommittee (A3B11)
• National Safety Council's Traffic Records Committee
• Motor Carriers Advisory Committee
• NHTSA Regions
• FHWA State and Regional Offices

The draft Guideline was also made available through the NHTSA World Wide Web page.

The NSC Traffic Records Committee endorsed the MUCC process at its Annual Meeting at the 23rd International Forum on Traffic Records & Highway Safety Information Systems in Tucson, AZ, in July 1997.

In cooperation with the NSC Traffic Records Committee, NHTSA, FHWA, and NAGHSR sponsored a National Workshop on July 17 - 18, 1997 at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, AZ, to review the draft Guideline and provide input for the next draft. The expert panel served as facilitators for this workshop.

Feedback was also received through other modes, e.g., by comments sent directly to the task group/expert team or through the Web Site established on the Internet.

The input received at the National Workshop along with comments received directly or through the Web Site, was reviewed at a meeting of the expert panel held in Washington, DC, in September, 1997. This Revised Draft Guideline for Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MUCC) was developed.

The revised draft is again being jointly published by the NAGHSR, the FHWA and the NHTSA and circulated to membership groups within the highway safety community and to other groups and individuals expressing an interest.

• Comments on the Revised Draft may be made until March 31, 1998. Each Highway Safety Office is being encouraged to conduct a statewide meeting to discuss the revised guideline and to coordinate input. Comments may be sent:

By mail to: MUCC Comments
NHTSA, NRD-31
400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room 6125
Washington, DC 20590

By FAX to: 202.366.7078

By E-Mail to: MUCCMAIL@nhtsa.dot.gov All commenters are being asked to address these questions:

1. Is the Guideline the appropriate minimum data set?

2. Can the data elements be collected by the data collectors in the field?

3. Do the data elements represent a good balance between the data needs and data wants?

4. Is it clear which data elements must be collected at the scene and which can be obtained from linkage or derived?

5. Do the data elements make it possible to evaluate emerging issues such as fatigue, aggressive driver, speed, etc.? Can some data elements be dropped under the assumption that they are more applicable for special studies?

6. Which 3 data elements would be the most difficult for your state to collect? Which data elements cannot be collected because of violation of state statutes?

7. Which potential barriers (discussed in next section) are most applicable to your state and what resources will your state need to overcome them?

8. Should we collect citation and violation codes as part of MUCC?

9. Is it feasible to derive the VIN by linking vehicle plate number to the vehicle registration data file?

The expert panel will meet in the Spring of 1998 to review all comments and input received. A final version of the MUCC Guideline will be developed at this meeting.
Publication of the final MUCC Guideline is expected in the late spring or early summer of 1998. It will be distributed jointly by FHWA, NHTSA, and the NAGHSR.

Return to Main page