NHTSA to conduct drowsy driving survey

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to conduct a national survey to look at the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors involving drowsy driving.

A notice and request for comments is scheduled to publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, Nov. 10.

“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking approval to collect information from a random sample of adults who have driven a motor vehicle in the past month for a one-time voluntary survey to report their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors associated with drowsy driving,” the notice stated.

The collection will be conducted in two parts. The pilot test will consist of NHTSA contacting 1,000 households for an expected number of 163 voluntary responses. The second part is the full survey in which NHTSA will contact 81,490 households to achieve a total target of at least 15,000 voluntary responses.

NHTSA said the information received from the surveys will lead to the development of countermeasures for “reducing fatalities, injuries and crashes associated with drowsy driving.”

The agency said it will summarize the results of the collection using aggregate statistics in a final report distributed to NHTSA programs and regional offices, state highway safety offices, and other traffic safety stakeholders.

“NHTSA’s congressional mandate is to reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes on the nation’s highways,” the notice stated.

“While there have been several studies of self-reported drowsy driving behavior, there is limited research about knowledge and attitudes that lead to drowsy driving … The information will assist NHTSA in planning drowsy driving prevention program activities, supporting groups involved in improving public safety, and identifying countermeasure strategies that ae most acceptable and effective in reducing drowsy driving.”

Once the notice is published in the Federal Register, a 60-day public comment period will begin. Comments can be made at the Regulations.gov website by entering Docket No. NHTSA-2020-0024. LL