NHTSA Seeks Comment on Data Collection for Crash, Surveillance, and Studies

Content

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments on a request for extension with modification of a currently approved information collection.

SUMMARY:

NHTSA invites public comments about our intention to request approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an
extension with modification of a currently approved information collection. Before a Federal agency can collect certain information
from the public, it must receive approval from OMB. Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, before
seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit public comment on proposed collections of information, including extensions
and reinstatement of previously approved collections. This document describes a collection of information for which NHTSA
intends to seek OMB approval on Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS), Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS), and Special Study Data
Collection.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before May 18, 2026.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments identified by the Docket No. NHTSA-2026-0463 through any of the following methods:

• Electronic submissions: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.

• Fax: (202) 493-2251.

• Mail or Hand Delivery: Docket Management, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Room W12-140, Washington,
DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on Federal holidays.

Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and docket number for this notice. Note that all comments received will be posted
without change to http://www.regulations.gov including any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading below.

Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You
may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the
Federal Register
published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit https://www.transportation.gov/privacy.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov or the street address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the dockets via internet.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For additional information or access to background documents, contact Barbara Rhea, State Data Reporting Systems Division
(NSA-120), (202) 560-6724, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Room W43-313, U.S. Department of Transportation,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Please identify the relevant collection of information by referring to its
OMB Control Number (2127-0714).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), before an agency submits a proposed collection of information to OMB for approval, it must first publish a document in
the
Federal Register
providing a 60-day comment period and otherwise consult with members of the public and affected agencies concerning each proposed
collection of information. The OMB has promulgated regulations describing what must be included in such a document. Under
OMB's regulation (at 5 CFR 1320.8(d)), an agency must ask for public comment on the following: (a) whether the proposed collection
of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information,
including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) how to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (d) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond,
including the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other
forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic submission of responses. In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA asks for public comments on the
following proposed collection of information for which the agency is seeking approval from OMB.

Title: Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS), Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS), and Special Study Data Collection.

OMB Control Number: 2127-0714.

Form Number(s): NHTSA Form 2178, NHTSA Form 2174.

Type of Request: Extension with modification of a currently approved collection of information.

Type of Review Requested: Regular.

Requested Expiration Date of Approval: Three years from date of approval.

Summary of the Collection of Information:

NHTSA is authorized by 49 U.S.C. 30182 and 23 U.S.C. 403 to collect data on motor vehicle traffic crashes to aid in the identification
of issues and the development, implementation, and evaluation of motor vehicle and highway safety countermeasures to support
efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities caused by motor vehicle crashes. The Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS) is a voluntary
collection of data from police-reported crashes involving all types of motor vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists; this includes
property damage only crashes as well as those resulting in injuries and fatalities. The Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS) is
a virtual data collection effort for collecting information about non-traffic crashes and non-crash incidents. The NTS data
provide counts and details regarding fatalities and injuries that occur in non-traffic crashes and in non-crash incidents.
This request for extension is a modification to the previously approved as OMB Control No. 2127-0714 (current expiration Date:
8/31/2026). The previous request for this information collection (OMB No. 2127-0714) estimated the annual burden to be 42,680
burden hours and this request decreases the burden to 18,167 hours. This ICR is adjusted due to (a) reducing burden hour estimates
for CRSS information collection to reflect current efficiencies, (b) remove the Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study.

Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the Information:

NHTSA is authorized by 49 U.S.C. 30182 and 23 U.S.C. 403 to collect data on motor vehicle traffic crashes to aid in the identification
of issues and the development, implementation, and evaluation of motor vehicle and highway safety countermeasures to reduce
fatalities and the property damages associated with motor vehicle crashes. Using this authority, NHTSA established the Crash
Report Sampling System (CRSS), Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS) and targeted Special Studies to collect data on motor vehicle
crashes. These data collection effort support the Department of Transportation's strategic goal for safety by working toward
the elimination of transportation related deaths, injuries, and property damage.

CRSS

The CRSS is a voluntary collection of data from police-reported crashes involving all types of motor vehicles, pedestrians,
and cyclists; this includes property damage only crashes as well as those resulting in injuries and fatalities. CRSS obtains
its data from a nationally representative probability sample selected from the estimated six million police-reported crashes
that occur annually in the United States. By focusing attention on police-reported crashes, CRSS concentrates on the crashes
of greatest concern to the highway safety community and the public.

CRSS depends on the voluntary participation and cooperation of State and law enforcement agencies. This allows NHTSA and its
contractors to access the crash reports to review, list, and categorize the crashes. CRSS data is solely based on crash reports.
The crash reports provide essential data: detailed information regarding the location of the crash, the vehicles, and the
people involved. The crash reports are official local and State government forms that include the location of the crash and
the pre-crash environment, explains the number and types of vehicles involved

  as well as describing the persons, injuries and other variables to express how the person was involved in the crash. No personally
  identifiable information is collected or released via the CRSS data. Selected crashes are released to the public in the annual
  CRSS file following quality control processes conducted by NHTSA. These data files are used by NHTSA and the public for highway
  safety research purposes.

NTS

The NTS is a data collection effort for collecting information about counts and details regarding fatalities and injuries
that occur in non-traffic crashes and non-crash incidents. U.S. Congress required the Secretary of Transportation (NHTSA by
delegation) to collect and maintain information about fatalities and injuries in nontraffic and non-crash incidents in the
Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 (K.T. Safety Act) (Pub. L. 110-189). NHTSA designed and implemented
the Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS) study to fulfill the requirements of the K.T. Safety Act.

Non-traffic crashes are crashes that occur off a public trafficway (e.g. private roads, parking lots, or driveways), and non-crash incidents are incidents involving motor vehicles but without a crash
scenario such as, carbon monoxide poisoning and hypo/hyperthermia. The NTS non-traffic crash data are obtained through NHTSA's
data collection efforts for the Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS), (1) the Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS), (2) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). (3) NTS also includes data outside of NHTSA's own data collections. NTS' non-crash injury data is based upon emergency department
records from a special study conducted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance
System (NEISS) All Injury Program. The NTS non-crash fatality data is derived from death certificate information from the
Centers for Disease Control's National Vital Statistics System.

This ICR only seeks approval for the collection of data for NTS non-traffic crash data collection from the CRSS data collection
effort. The burden for NTS is included across three information collections because the data is collected differently under
each of NHTSA's three data collection efforts that feed into NTS. The CRSS and CISS data collection efforts obtain NTS applicable
reports received from the sample sites during their normal data collection efforts for CRSS and CISS. The FARS data collection
effort uncovers NTS applicable reports received from the State during their normal data collection activities for FARS. Therefore,
portions of the burden for NTS are included in the ICRs for all three data collection efforts.

Special Studies

Initially, the previous ICR requested approval for two special studies to be considered.

—Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study

—PJ Frame Evaluation Special Study

Upon reevaluation, the statisticians determined that PJ Frame Evaluation Special Study would be the most beneficial for reducing
underestimation in the CRSS estimates. Consequently, the Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study will no longer be utilized.
However, information for both special studies is provided below for reference.

Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study

In addition to the CRSS data collection, NHTSA may require a special study to collect crash counts from the non-sampled CRSS
jurisdictions. The data to be collected from the non-sampled PJs includes the crash counts by the crash report Strata—within
in scope for CRSS, NTS applicable, or out of scope. Non-sampled PJs are defined as PJs that investigate motor vehicle crashes
within the CRSS Primary Sampling Units (PSU) boundaries but are not selected for the CRSS data collection.

The majority of the CRSS estimates are sub-population totals and percentages. To make these estimates efficient, both CRSS
PSU and PJ samples were selected using probability proportional to size sampling method. Here the PSU and PJ crash counts
were used as the measure of size (MOS). On the other hand, CRSS PSU and PJ samples are panel samples—once selected they are
used for many years' data collection. A drawback of using panel sample is the MOS may become outdated over time so that the
estimates become less efficient. To mitigate this inadvertent effect, it is necessary to collect the crash counts of the non-sampled
PJs periodically and use them together with the sampled PJ's crash counts to calibrate the PJ weights. The completion of the
Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study supplements the CRSS data collection effort to reduce PJ frame coverage errors, sampling
variance and potential PJ non-response bias. In addition, non-sampled counts are also used to update the PJ frame for future
PJ sample re-selection.

There are various tasks associated with the non-sampled PJ crash counts, including working with the non-sampled police jurisdictions
to gain access to crash reports. Then, for an entire data collection year, the collection of the non-sampled PJ crash counts
would include the review of crash reports from the non-sampled PJs that are to be stratified and tallied.

PJ Frame Evaluation Special Study

Another special study NHTSA may require is the CRSS PJ frame evaluation. The current CRSS PJ sample was selected from a PJ
frame created in 2016. However, the PJ frame is constantly changing: new PJs start operating, existing PJs are closed, multiple
PJs are merged into one PJ, or one PJ splits into multiple PJs. The current CRSS PJ sample was selected from the 2016 PJ frame
and the PJ weights were calculated accordingly. If the PJ frame has changed dramatically from the 2016 PJ frame, the CRSS
PJ weights are no longer correct and the CRSS estimates may be biased. To prevent this, NHTSA needs to evaluate the current
PJ frame. Specifically, this includes the following:

1. The PJ frame evaluation should identify all the current PJs (including new PJs, closed PJs, any changes) that provide Police
   Crash Report (PCRs) in the non-Electronic Data Transfer (EDT) PSUs.

2. For all identified PJs in the PJ frame, collect six crash counts (total crashes, fatal crashes, injury crashes, pedestrian
   crashes, motorcycle crashes, and commercial motor vehicle crashes). These crash counts will be used as PJ measurement of size
   for PJ sample selection or PJ weight adjustment if needed.

The CRSS States have a combination of crash report access methods, which include but are not limited to the EDT, access to
State websites and web service transfer. The EDT is a routine automated transfer of State crash data from a State agency to
NHTSA to support crash data collection efforts for various crash report data collection systems. EDT reduces the level of
effort need to share crash data to support NHTSA record-based and crash investigation studies.

Absent the data collected and disseminated via the CRSS, NTS and the two special studies, US DOT, State Highway Safety Offices,
and other traffic safety analysts would not have

  information data crucial to problem identification and countermeasure development for motor vehicle crashes and non-traffic
  crashes, respectively.

Affected Public: Various Police Jurisdiction and State Agencies.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 1,367.

Frequency: Annual.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 18,167.

Burden for CRSS and NTS

Within the 30 States or 60 CRSS PSUs there are PJs, from which a CRSS sampler must obtain crash reports for listing, categorization,
and sampling. Currently, 54 PSUs provide NHTSA data electronically—through EDT, State website access, or web service portal.
For one State, the crash reports are obtained through EDT and manually since not all crashes are reported through EDT. A total
of 6 PSUs, or 37 local PJs, where crash reports collection is conducted in the field using a combination of electronic and
manual methods as dictated by the sample PJ's crash report collection methods. The manual PJs required field samplers which
incur an increased burden due to the labor-intensive administrative practices and privacy protections associated with manually
accessing the crash reports.

The annual burden estimate detailed in Table 1 is produced by identifying the crash report access method for each PSU and
PJ and assigning the appropriate burden hours for that method as outlined below. Since NTS data is collected with CRSS data,
the burden estimates also include NTS burdens.

• EDT Maintenance—For PSUs providing crash report through EDT, the burden is estimated at five hours annually. This accounts for yearly updates to programming needed to successfully transmit data, such as updating data structures if new data elements are added or any changes to the state made to their crash report or databases.
• State website—User Access Only: For PSUs providing crash reports via a state repository/website or database, the burden is estimated at 10 hours annually per PSU and PJ in the State. This represents time to process user account requests, establish credentials, and routine maintenance of the State's data repositories.
• State website—User Access and Additional Administrative Functions: For PSUs providing crash reports directly to NHTSA via web service or where the State employees provide user access accounts in addition to regularly searches for crash reports, compiles the lists of crashes to send to NHTSA monthly, the burden is estimated at 60 hours annually per PSU and PJ in the State. This represents implementation, data transfer monitoring, and communications with NHTSA and its contractors. • For PJs providing crash reports to NHTSA via manual crash report access methods (i.e., copying crash reports and mailing them, and searching for recently completed crash reports and uploading crash reports to secure email links), the burden is estimated at 470 hours annually per PJ. This represents—but is not limited to—maintaining a law enforcement presence while the crash reports are being reviewed, and/or providing resources to the CRSS sampler in order to access the crash reports. This is the most labor extensive access type due to the administrative burden and the additional processes required to protect PII. Other local police jurisdictions may photocopy crash reports and FedEx to the contractors or download electronic crash reports to submit electronically via secure email or thumb drive monthly. This total also accounts for States that have monthly manual processes to identify crash reports in their state databases, compile crash reports and share with NHTSA.

This hourly burden was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' mean hourly wage estimate for Court, Municipal, and
License Clerks (Standard Occupational Classification #43-4031) (4) from May 2024 of $24.61 Therefore, NHTSA estimates the hourly wage associated with the estimated 17,820 burden hours to be
$438,550.20 (17,820 hours × $24.61 per hour). The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that for State and local government
workers, wages represent 61.5% of total compensation. (5) Therefore, the total cost of burden associated with this collection is estimated to be $713,089. 76 ($438,550.20 ÷ 0.6150).

| Access method | Hours per
jurisdiction (PJ or States) | Number of respondents (PJ or States) | Total hours |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| EDT (Maintenance) | 5 | 14 States | 70 |
| State Website (user access only) | 10 | 10 States and 2PJs | 120 |
| State Website (user access and additional administrative functions) | 60 | 1 States | 60 |
| Web Service (user access and States query and compile info) | 60 | 1 State and 2 PJs | 180 |
| Mixed Manual | 470 | 37 PJs | 17,390 |
| Grand Total | | 67 Respondents | 17,820 |
Annually, there is the potential to reselect police jurisdictions, which is dependent on maintenance of cooperation and access
to crash reports. If cooperation is lost, replacement jurisdictions are sought. Regardless, the PJ frame is updated, and the
PJ sample is reselected every year. However, the changes in the sampled PJs are minimal because Pareto sampling method is
used for PJ sample selection. Any changes to the PJ frame could impact the reported burden rates. For more details, please
refer to Pages 29-32 of the Technical Report: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812706.

Special Studies

The CRSS special studies are important to evaluate the PJ frame of the CRSS PSUs, determine PJ weights and measure of size
for the CRSS PJ sample selection. For NHTSA to accomplish its mission, motor vehicle crash data must be of the highest quality
which includes

  sampling from an accurate PJ frame to select a nationally representative sample of crashes.

Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study (This study is Removed From This ICR)

The burden calculation for the Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study is difficult to determine. Each burden calculation
is associated with the agreed upon crash report access method for sample sites. For non-sampled PJs we have no established
relationship nor is it known which type of access to crash report is feasible. Most importantly, Non-sampled Sampled PJ Crash
Count Special Studies are conducted on an ad-hoc basis and not implemented every year. We estimate that the Non-sampled Sampled
PJ Crash Count Special Study will at most be conducted once in the next three-year cycle. Table 2 illustrates the burden hours
for this special study by access method. EDT has been removed from the table because CRSS samples from the entire county for
EDT States, therefore there is no distinction between the non-sampled and sampled PJs. This is an added benefit to EDT implementation
as we get an accurate assessment of the PSU frame by CRSS strata. State websites with user access have non-sampled PJs however,
there is no added burden because the initial access granted is at the state level. State website with user access and additional
administrative functions provide NHTSA data at the county level, which includes both sampled and non-sampled PJs, thus there
is no additional burden to the state. Webservice agreements also provide data at the county level, thus there is no additional
burden to the state to provide non-sampled crash reports. States noted as having manual methods only account for the sampled
PJs. Without established cooperation, NHTSA can't forecast individual PJ's access methods for the purposes of the burden calculation.
Therefore, NHTSA assumes that all the non-sampled PJs within the PSUs using the mixed manual method will also use this method.
Thus, NHTSA estimates 136 PJs will participate in the non-sampled special study using the mixed manual method. The maximum
burden for the Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study's estimated burden is 63,920 with the possibility of reduction with
cooperative agreements finalized. If the Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study were to be collected once in the next three
year, dividing the 63,920 total burden hours by three would yield an annual burden of 21,307 hours.

After the statisticians revaluated the Non-Sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study, it was concluded that the PJ frame evaluation
and the updated six crash counts would be the most beneficial to reduce underestimation in the CRSS estimates. Thus, the Non-Sampled
PJ Crash Count Special Study will be no longer utilized. The new burden hours will no longer reflect this special study in
Table 4.

| Access method | Hours per
jurisdiction | Number of
respondents jurisdiction (PJ) or States | Total hours |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Manual | 470 | 136 | 21,307 (470*136/3) |
| Grand Total | | 136 | 21,307 |

PJ Frame Evaluation Special Study

The activities associated with PJ frame evaluation special study include identifying the in-scope PJs and collecting six crash
count from the in-scope PJs. NHTSA estimates there are total 40 non-EDT PSUs and about 1,300 PJs in those non-EDT PSUs. NHTSA
anticipates approximately 16 minutes (0.25 hours) for each PJ to prepare the six crash counts. NHTSA estimates the total number
of hours of response burden is about 347 hours.

| PJ Frame evaluation | Hours per
jurisdiction(minutes) | Number of
respondents jurisdiction (PJ) | Total hours |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Manual | 16 | 1,300 | 347 (16/60*1,300) |
| Grand Total | | 1,300 | 347 |
The total cost of burden associated with PJ frame evaluation special study is $13,885.64 (347 hours × $24.61 per hour/.6150
compensation) using the same mean hourly wage estimate for Court, Municipal and license clerks and estimates that for State
and local government workers, wages represent 61.50% of total compensation. (6)

The total annual burden hours for the CRSS, and NTS and is estimated at 18,167 (17,820 + 347) for a data collection year when
all studies are implemented.

The total cost of burden associated with this collection is estimated to be $726,975.40 ($713,089.76 + $13,885.64).

| Information collections | Number of
respondents | Previous
burden hours | New burden hours | Difference | Reasoning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CRSS | 67 | 21,040 | 17,820 | 3,220 | Increased efficiencies with more States participating in EDT and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) |
| NTS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Included with CRSS burden above |
| Non-sampled PJ Crash Count Special Study | 0 | 21,307 | 0 | 21,307 | This special study is removed from the data collection. |
| PJ Frame Evaluation Special Study | 1,300 | 333 | 347 | 14 | Estimated number is increased to account for newly identified in-scope PJs during evaluation. |
| Total | 1,367 | 42,680 | 18,167 | 24,513 | |
Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: $0.

There are no additional costs to respondents participating.

Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspects of this information collection, including (a) whether the proposed collection of information
is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Department, including whether the information will have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the Department's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; (c) ways to enhance
the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection
of information on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

(Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29A.)

Chou-Lin Chen, Associate Administrator, National Center for Statistics and Analysis. [FR Doc. 2026-05366 Filed 3-18-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910-59-P

Footnotes

(1) The CRSS information collection is assigned OMB Control No. 2127-0714.

(2) The CISS information collection is assigned OMB Control No. 2127-0706.

(3) The FARS information collection is assigned OMB Control No. 2127-0006.

(4) See May 2023 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, 43-4031—Court, Municipal, and License Clerks,
available at Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (accessed December 23, 2025).

(5) See Table 1. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by ownership for state and local government workers, available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm (accessed December 23, 2025).

(6) See Table 1. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by ownership for state and local government workers, available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm (accessed December 23, 2025).

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