The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will provide $171 million in grants to 19 states and territories to upgrade and standardize their crash data systems.

The system upgrades will improve the accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of fatality information, including data about pedestrians and cyclists, through enhanced intrastate data sharing and electronic transfers to NHTSA, according to a news release from the administration.

The selected states and territories are:

• • American Samoa
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Connecticut
  • District of Columbia
  • Florida
  • Illinois
  • Kansas
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Minnesota
  • New Mexico
  • Oregon
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • Tennessee
  • Utah
  • West Virginia

“These grants will provide much-needed funds for states and territories to upgrade their systems and make sharing data with NHTSA quicker and easier,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman, in the release. “These upgrades to crash data systems will provide the agency and the public [with] more timely data, help us identify emerging trends, and advance our shared mission to save lives.”

NHTSA says the State Electronic Data Collection program fulfills a directive from President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law requires NHTSA to establish this program and participating states and territories have five years to implement full electronic data transfers to NHTSA.

Under the law, NHTSA will:

• • “Revise crash data collection system to include the collection of data elements that distinguish personal conveyance vehicles, such as scooters and bikes, from other vehicles involved in a crash.
  • “Change crash data collection systems to include the collection of data elements relating to vulnerable road user safety.
  • “Coordinate with states to update Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria.
  • “Coordinate with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop and implement plans for states to combine highway crash data with injury health data to produce a national database of pedestrian injuries and fatalities with demographic characteristics.
  • “Increase participation in Electronic Data Transfer protocol via new state grant program and internal investment.
  • “Expand Crash Investigation Sampling System by adding sites, broadening scope, and adopting on‐scene investigation protocols.
  • “Conduct a study to evaluate Early Warning Reporting data and identify improvements that would enhance the use of such data for safety purposes. Submit a Report to Congress. And, require vehicle manufacturers to comply with Early Warning Reporting requirements notwithstanding any settlement agreement.”

The program also advances the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) and its work to significantly reduce serious injuries and deaths by supporting improved data to inform better decision-making, the release says.

The NRSS embraces the safe system approach, which anticipates that people will make mistakes but builds a holistic system to ensure those mistakes don’t become fatal, NHTSA said.

“More state data coming to NHTSA faster will enable the agency to put the information to work to develop effective and responsive strategies, countermeasures, research, rulemakings, and consumer education campaigns,” the release states.

Early NHTSA estimates released in November show a decline in fatalities in nearly all subcategories, including pedestrian, speeding-related crashes, rollover crashes, and crashes involving unbuckled occupants during the first half of 2024.

An NHTSA report released in September estimated that 18,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes during the first half of 2024, a 3.2% decrease compared to the same period in 2023.

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