(PDF 1.46 MB) August 2016; DOT HS 812 308
This final report on the Driving While Impaired Arrest Process project includes six case studies of strategies used by law enforcement to reduce the cost and time associated with processing DWI arrests. The objectives are to identify law enforcement agencies that have made improvements to their DWI arrest procedures resulting in time and/or cost savings, and to gather data from these jurisdictions to describe these savings. The improvements, time and cost savings, and implementation are described to develop a roadmap that agencies can use to implement these solutions.

(PDF 5.6 MB) July 2016; DOT HS 812 294 
This is the first of three reports on our 2013-2104 National Roadside Survey (NRS). This report describes the methodology for the NRS, a national field study to estimate the prevalence of alcohol-, drug-, and alcohol-plus-drug-involved driving primarily among nighttime weekend drivers, but also daytime Friday drivers. This study involved randomly stopping drivers at 300 locations across the continental United States. The locations were selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. Researchers collected the data during a two-hour Friday daytime session (either 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.) at 60 locations, and during four two-hour nighttime periods (10 p.m. to midnight and 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights) at 240 locations, for a total of 300 locations. Data included both self-report and biological measures. Self-report portions were funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). An objective was to obtain at least 7,500 oral fluid samples for analysis. Oral fluid and blood samples were subjected to laboratory screening and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS; the term MS/MS is the combination of two mass analyzers in one mass spec instrument) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) confirmation respectively for alcohol and six classes of drugs, allowing researchers to estimate a national prevalence of alcohol and other drugs in drivers. This report describes the field methods used to conduct this study, including data collection procedures. The report also details overall response rates. All drivers’ responses were completely voluntary and anonymous. 

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) March 2016; DOT HS 812 252

) May 2016; DOT HS 812 288
This report explores health and quality-of-life impacts of crashes among older (65+) and middle-aged (40-55) occupants. Analyses indicated the injured people had long-term health decrements following the crashes, and that older and middle-age injured occupants showed continuing health decrements approximately 15 months following the crashes. Although both groups showed similar physical effects, middle-age people showed greater quality-of-life decrements. These findings demonstrate the long-term implications of injury crashes and, therefore, highlight the need for crash avoidance and mitigation countermeasures.

 
(PDF 1.42

MB) April 2016; DOT HS 812 257
Speeding is a major factor in a large proportion of traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities in the United States. Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) is one of many approaches shown to be effective in reducing speeding violations and crashes. However, despite the effectiveness of ASE, opposition to automated enforcement can make it difficult to establish and maintain these programs. In 2008, NHTSA and the Federal Highway Administration published the Speed Enforcement Camera Systems Operational Guidelines to assist State and local agencies in planning and operating ASE systems as a component of comprehensive speed management programs. Data on currently operating and recently discontinued ASE programs in the United States were collected over a six-month period through questionnaires, phone calls, e-mails, and site visits. The programs were compared to critical elements of the NHTSA Guidelines. Although 63 percent of the respondents were not aware of the NHTSA Guidelines, the programs were consistent with the guidelines on many specific issues. Enabling legislation and technologies varied greatly by State and by agency, and appeared to have large effects on how programs were operated. There were also striking differences in ASE program administration between States implementing ASE prior to 2008, when the NHTSA Guidelines were published, and those beginning more recently. 

 
(PDF 11.4 MB) April 2016; DOT HS 812 255
Speeding-related crashes continue to be a serious problem in the United States. A recently completed NHTSA project, Motivations for Speeding, collected data to address questions about driver speeding behavior. This naturalistic driving study used 1-Hz GPS units to collect data from 88 drivers in Seattle and 76 drivers in rural Texas to record how fast vehicles traveled on different roadways. Analysis identified four basic patterns of speeding behavior. The project developed this data set to redefine speeding in terms of speeding episodes and to create a new data set for analyses in terms of individual speeding episodes, and examined the influence of situational factors on the different types of speeding. Analyses of the speeding episodes identified types of speeding: speeding that occurs around speed-zone transitions, incidental speeding, casual speeding, cruising speeding, and aggressive speeding. Analyses also identified driver types: unintentional speeders, situational speeders, typical speeders, and deliberate speeders. Both types of speeding and driver types occurred across all demographic groups. Data analyses on the relationships between situational factors and speeding was conducted at a high level due to the lack of available situational data, yielding the following conclusions: (1) general riskiness of different types of speeding was corroborated by the involvement of riskier elements in speeding episodes, (2) anecdotal evidence of location-specific characteristics affecting both the occurrence and non-occurrence of speeding was found, (3) there were indirect indicators that certain aspects of the driving environment affect speeding behavior, and (4) there were clear similarities between types of speeding at both the rural and urban data collection sites.

 
(PDF 3.24 MB)

NHTSA’s Office of Behavioral Safety Research (OBSR) has conducted national telephone surveys focusing on different program areas since 1991. The results have been disseminated through published and posted reports. Beginning in 2009, OBSR began to post its survey databases with accompanying explanatory material for use by the public. OBSR recently posted a database regarding the National Travel Speed Survey (conducted in 2011).

) July 2016; DOT HS 812 291
In-vehicle feedback technologies help parents teach their adolescent drivers. While feedback technologies have been shown to reduce some risky driving behavior, teens and parents’ privacy concerns deter some families from using them, especially technologies that include video. This study evaluated two similar technology-based systems, one with and one without video, to determine how much they reduced unsafe driving behavior in newly licensed teen drivers. 

) October 2016; DOT HS 812 337
This report evaluates the “More Cops, More Stops” combined enforcement program in Oklahoma and Tennessee, letting the traffic safety community make better informed programming decisions. This evaluation provides little evidence to support the continued use of More Cops, More Stops to enhance the effect of Click It or Ticket and Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

NEW Child Passenger Safety and Tween Seat Belt Safety Radio Campaign

• “Funeral” – New national enforcement television and radio ads to support 2017 national distracted-driving awareness enforcement campaign (English and Spanish)
• National social norming digital ads to support 2017 national Distracted-Driving Awareness Month