Traditionally, road safety has been assumed to be the responsibility of the transport sector, with the main focus within the sector limited to building infrastructure and managing traffic growth. With the sharp increases in motorization in the 1960s in many developed countries, traffic safety agencies were often set up, usually located within a government's transport department.

The NHTSA is responsible for reducing deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes. This is accomplished by setting and enforcing safety performance standards for motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment, and through grants to state and local governments to enable them to conduct effective local highway safety programs.0

NHTSA investigates safety defects in motor vehicles, sets and enforces fuel economy standards, helps states and local communities reduce the threat of drunk drivers, promotes the use of safety belts, child safety seats and air bags, investigates odometer fraud, establishes and enforces vehicle anti-theft regulations and provides consumer information on motor vehicle safety topics.

NHTSA also conducts research on driver behavior and traffic safety to develop the most efficient and effective means of bringing about safety improvements.

On October 11, 2002, the NHTSA issued a call for Comments on Event Data Recorders in the Federal
Register.¹ The call was in response to the three petitions received. NHTSAs response to two earlier petitions noted:

In this document, we deny a petition for rulemaking submitted by Marie E. Birnbaum, a private individual. The petitioner asked us to initiate rulemaking to require passenger cars and light trucks to be equipped with "black boxes" (data recorders) analogous to those found on commercial airliners. We agree with the petitioner that the recording of crash data can provide information that is very valuable in understanding crashes, and which can be used in a variety of ways to improve motor vehicle safety.

However, we are denying the petition because the motor vehicle industry is already voluntarily moving in the direction recommended by the petitioner. Further, we believe this area presents some issues that are, at least for the present time, best addressed in a non-regulatory context.

We received a petition for rulemaking from Marie E. Birnbaum, a private individual, asking us to initiate rulemaking to require passenger cars and light trucks to be equipped with "black boxes" (data recorders) analogous to those found on commercial airliners. The petitioner stated that the purpose of the devices would be to record speed and possibly other data in order to (1) improve public safety by encouraging responsible driving, and (2) provide records of pre-crash speed and possibly other information. Ms. Birnbaum stated that this pre-crash information would work to improve driver accountability through better crash investigations, enforcement and adjudication.

We note that we received Ms. Birnbaum's petition just after we had denied another petition making essentially the same request. Price T. Bingham, a private individual, had asked us to initiate rulemaking to require air bag sensors to be designed so that similar information is recorded during a crash and can be read by crash investigators.

In responding to Mr. Bingham's petition, we noted that the safety community in recent years has shown considerable interest in the concept of crash event recorders. Such recorders can, in conjunctions with air bag and other sensors already provided on many vehicles, collect and record a variety of relevant crash data. These data include such things as vehicle speed, belt use, and crash pulse.

While we agreed with Mr. Bingham that the recording of crash data can provide information that is very valuable in understanding crashes, and which can be used in a variety of ways to improve vehicle safety, we nonetheless denied the petition. One reason for denying the petition was the fact that the motor vehicle industry is already voluntarily moving in the direction recommended by the petitioner. Another was our belief that this are presents some issues that are, at least for the present time, best addressed in a non-regulatory context.

We issued our denial of Mr. Birnbaum's petition on November 3, 1998, and published it in the November 9, 1998 edition of the Federal Register (63 FR 60270). Ms. Birnbaum's petition was dated November 7, 1998.

After reviewing Ms. Birnbaum's petition, we conclude that our reasons for denying Mr. Bingham's petition are also applicable to her petition. A full explanation of those reasons is provided in our November 9, 1998 Federal Register notice, which we incorporate by reference.

The November 1998 notice included a discussion of ongoing work in the area by NHTSA's Motor Vehicle Safety Research Advisory Committee (MVSRAC). The agency noted that MVSRAC had set up a working group on event data recorders under the Crashworthiness Subcommittee and that the first meeting of the working group had taken place in October 1998. Since publication of the November 1998 notice, another working group meeting has been held, and a third is planned for this summer. The Event Data Recorder Working Group is considering a wide variety of subjects related to crash event recording devices and anticipates producing a report by the end of calendar year 2000.

Minutes of the Event Data Recorder Working Group meetings are being placed in the public docket. For the reasons discussed above, we are denying Ms. Birnbaum's petition for rulemaking.