23 U.S.C. § 402 : US Code - Section 402: Highway safety programs

Search 23 U.S.C. § 402 : US Code - Section 402: Highway safety programs

(a) Each State shall have a highway safety program approved by
the Secretary, designed to reduce traffic accidents and deaths,
injuries, and property damage resulting therefrom. Such programs
shall be in accordance with uniform guidelines promulgated by the
Secretary. Such uniform guidelines shall be expressed in terms of
performance criteria. In addition, such uniform guidelines shall
include programs (1) to reduce injuries and deaths resulting from
motor vehicles being driven in excess of posted speed limits, (2)
to encourage the proper use of occupant protection devices
(including the use of safety belts and child restraint systems) by
occupants of motor vehicles, (3) to reduce deaths and injuries
resulting from persons driving motor vehicles while impaired by
alcohol or a controlled substance, (4) to prevent accidents and
reduce deaths and injuries resulting from accidents involving motor
vehicles and motorcycles, (5) to reduce injuries and deaths
resulting from accidents involving school buses, and (!1) (6) to
reduce accidents resulting from unsafe driving behavior (including
aggressive or fatigued driving and distracted driving arising from
the use of electronic devices in vehicles) (!2) (7) to improve law
enforcement services in motor vehicle accident prevention, traffic
supervision, and post-accident procedures. The Secretary shall
establish a highway safety program for the collection and reporting
of data on traffic-related deaths and injuries by the States. Under
such program, the States shall collect and report such data as the
Secretary may require. The purposes of the program are to ensure
national uniform data on such deaths and injuries and to allow the
Secretary to make determinations for use in developing programs to
reduce such deaths and injuries and making recommendations to
Congress concerning legislation necessary to implement such
programs. The program shall provide for annual reports to the
Secretary on the efforts being made by the States in reducing
deaths and injuries occurring at highway construction sites and the
effectiveness and results of such efforts. The Secretary shall
establish minimum reporting criteria for the program. Such criteria
shall include, but not be limited to, criteria on deaths and
injuries resulting from police pursuits, school bus accidents,
aggressive driving, fatigued driving, distracted driving, and
speeding, on traffic-related deaths and injuries at highway
construction sites and on the configuration of commercial motor
vehicles involved in motor vehicle accidents. Such uniform
guidelines shall be promulgated by the Secretary so as to improve
driver performance (including, but not limited to, driver
education, driver testing to determine proficiency to operate motor
vehicles, driver examinations (both physical and mental) and driver
licensing) and to improve pedestrian performance and bicycle
safety. In addition such uniform guidelines shall include, but not
be limited to, provisions for an effective record system of
accidents (including injuries and deaths resulting therefrom),
accident investigations to determine the probable causes of
accidents, injuries, and deaths, vehicle registration, operation,
and inspection, highway design and maintenance (including lighting,
markings, and surface treatment), traffic control, vehicle codes
and laws, surveillance of traffic for detection and correction of
high or potentially high accident locations, enforcement of light
transmission standards of window glazing for passenger motor
vehicles and light trucks as necessary to improve highway safety,
and emergency services. Such guidelines as are applicable to State
highway safety programs shall, to the extent determined appropriate
by the Secretary, be applicable to federally administered areas
where a Federal department or agency controls the highways or
supervises traffic operations.
(b) Administration of State Programs. -
(1) Administrative requirements. - The Secretary may not
approve a State highway safety program under this section which
does not -
(A) provide that the Governor of the State shall be
responsible for the administration of the program through a
State highway safety agency which shall have adequate powers
and be suitably equipped and organized to carry out, to the
satisfaction of the Secretary, such program;
(B) authorize political subdivisions of the State to carry
out local highway safety programs within their jurisdictions as
a part of the State highway safety program if such local
highway safety programs are approved by the Governor and are in
accordance with the minimum standards established by the
Secretary under this section;
(C) except as provided in paragraph (3), provide that at
least 40 percent of all Federal funds apportioned under this
section to the State for any fiscal year will be expended by
the political subdivisions of the State, including Indian
tribal governments, in carrying out local highway safety
programs authorized in accordance with subparagraph (B);
(D) provide adequate and reasonable access for the safe and
convenient movement of individuals with disabilities, including
those in wheelchairs, across curbs constructed or replaced on
or after July 1, 1976, at all pedestrian crosswalks throughout
the State; and
(E) provide satisfactory assurances that the State will
implement activities in support of national highway safety
goals to reduce motor vehicle related fatalities that also
reflect the primary data-related crash factors within a State
as identified by the State highway safety planning process,
including -
(i) national law enforcement mobilizations;
(ii) sustained enforcement of statutes addressing impaired
driving, occupant protection, and driving in excess of posted
speed limits;
(iii) an annual statewide safety belt use survey in
accordance with criteria established by the Secretary for the
measurement of State safety belt use rates to ensure that the
measurements are accurate and representative; and
(iv) development of statewide data systems to provide
timely and effective data analysis to support allocation of
highway safety resources.
(2) Waiver. - The Secretary may waive the requirement of
paragraph (1)(C), in whole or in part, for a fiscal year for any
State whenever the Secretary determines that there is an
insufficient number of local highway safety programs to justify
the expenditure in the State of such percentage of Federal funds
during the fiscal year.
(3) Use of technology for traffic enforcement. - The Secretary
may encourage States to use technologically advanced traffic
enforcement devices (including the use of automatic speed
detection devices such as photo-radar) by law enforcement
officers.
(c) Funds authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section
shall be used to aid the States to conduct the highway safety
programs approved in accordance with subsection (a), including
development and implementation of manpower training programs, and
of demonstration programs that the Secretary determines will
contribute directly to the reduction of accidents, and deaths and
injuries resulting therefrom. Such funds shall be apportioned 75
per centum in the ratio which the population of each State bears to
the total population of all the States, as shown by the latest
available Federal census, and 25 per centum in the ratio which the
public road mileage in each State bears to the total public road
mileage in all States. For the purposes of this subsection, a
"public road" means any road under the jurisdiction of and
maintained by a public authority and open to public travel. Public
road mileage as used in this subsection shall be determined as of
the end of the calendar year preceding the year in which the funds
are apportioned and shall be certified to by the Governor of the
State and subject to approval by the Secretary. The annual
apportionment to each State shall not be less than one-half of 1
per centum of the total apportionment, except that the
apportionment to the Secretary of the Interior shall not be less
than 2 percent of the total apportionment and the apportionments to
the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands shall not be less than one-quarter of
1 per centum of the total apportionment. The Secretary shall not
apportion any funds under this subsection to any State which is not
implementing a highway safety program approved by the Secretary in
accordance with this section. For the purpose of the seventh
sentence of this subsection, a highway safety program approved by
the Secretary shall not include any requirement that a State
implement such a program by adopting or enforcing any law, rule, or
regulation based on a guideline promulgated by the Secretary under
this section requiring any motorcycle operator eighteen years of
age or older or passenger eighteen years of age or older to wear a
safety helmet when operating or riding a motorcycle on the streets
and highways of that State. Implementation of a highway safety
program under this section shall not be construed to require the
Secretary to require compliance with every uniform guideline, or
with every element of every uniform guideline, in every State.
Funds apportioned under this section to any State, that does not
have a highway safety program approved by the Secretary or that is
not implementing an approved program, shall be reduced by amounts
equal to not less than 50 per centum of the amounts that would
otherwise be apportioned to the State under this section, until
such time as the Secretary approves such program or determines that
the State is implementing an approved program, as appropriate. The
Secretary shall consider the gravity of the State's failure to have
or implement an approved program in determining the amount of the
reduction. The Secretary shall promptly apportion to the State the
funds withheld from its apportionment if he approves the State's
highway safety program or determines that the State has begun
implementing an approved program, as appropriate, prior to the end
of the fiscal year for which the funds were withheld. If the
Secretary determines that the State did not correct its failure
within such period, the Secretary shall reapportion the withheld
funds to the other States in accordance with the formula specified
in this subsection not later than 30 days after such determination.
(d) All provisions of chapter 1 of this title that are applicable
to National Highway System highway funds other than provisions
relating to the apportionment formula and provisions limiting the
expenditure of such funds to the Federal-aid systems, shall apply
to the highway safety funds authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section, except as determined by the Secretary to be
inconsistent with this section, and except that the aggregate of
all expenditures made during any fiscal year by a State and its
political subdivisions (exclusive of Federal funds) for carrying
out the State highway safety program (other than planning and
administration) shall be available for the purpose of crediting
such State during such fiscal year for the non-Federal share of the
cost of any project under this section (other than one for planning
or administration) without regard to whether such expenditures were
actually made in connection with such project and except that, in
the case of a local highway safety program carried out by an Indian
tribe, if the Secretary is satisfied that an Indian tribe does not
have sufficient funds available to meet the non-Federal share of
the cost of such program, he may increase the Federal share of the
cost thereof payable under this Act to the extent necessary. In
applying such provisions of chapter 1 in carrying out this section
the term "State transportation department" as used in such
provisions shall mean the Governor of a State for the purposes of
this section.
(e) Uniform guidelines promulgated by the Secretary to carry out
this section shall be developed in cooperation with the States,
their political subdivisions, appropriate Federal departments and
agencies, and such other public and private organizations as the
Secretary deems appropriate.
(f) The Secretary may make arrangements with other Federal
departments and agencies for assistance in the preparation of
uniform guidelines for the highway safety programs contemplated by
subsection (a) and in the administration of such programs. Such
departments and agencies are directed to cooperate in such
preparation and administration, on a reimbursable basis.
(g) Nothing in this section authorizes the appropriation or
expenditure of funds for (1) highway construction, maintenance, or
design (other than design of safety features of highways to be
incorporated into guidelines) or (2) any purpose for which funds
are authorized by section 403 of this title.
[(h) Repealed. Pub. L. 97-35, title XI, Sec. 1107(c), Aug. 13,
1981, 95 Stat. 626.]
(i) Application in Indian Country. -
(1) Use of terms. - For the purpose of application of this
section in Indian country, the terms "State" and "Governor of a
State" include the Secretary of the Interior and the term
"political subdivision of a State" includes an Indian tribe.
(2) Expenditures for local highway programs. - Notwithstanding
subsection (b)(1)(C), 95 percent of the funds apportioned to the
Secretary of the Interior under this section shall be expended by
Indian tribes to carry out highway safety programs within their
jurisdictions.
(3) Access for individuals with disabilities. - The
requirements of subsection (b)(1)(D) shall be applicable to
Indian tribes, except to those tribes with respect to which the
Secretary determines that application of such provisions would
not be practicable.
(4) Indian country defined. - In this subsection, the term
"Indian country" means -
(A) all land within the limits of any Indian reservation
under the jurisdiction of the United States, notwithstanding
the issuance of any patent and including rights-of-way running
through the reservation;
(B) all dependent Indian communities within the borders of
the United States, whether within the original or subsequently
acquired territory thereof and whether within or without the
limits of a State; and
(C) all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have
not been extinguished, including rights-of-way running through
such allotments.
(j) Rulemaking Proceeding. - The Secretary may periodically
conduct a rulemaking process to identify highway safety programs
that are highly effective in reducing motor vehicle crashes,
injuries, and deaths. Any such rulemaking shall take into account
the major role of the States in implementing such programs. When a
rule promulgated in accordance with this section takes effect,
States shall consider these highly effective programs when
developing their highway safety programs.
(k)(1) Subject to the provisions of this subsection, the
Secretary shall make a grant to any State which includes, as part
of its highway safety program under section 402 of this title, the
use of a comprehensive computerized safety recordkeeping system
designed to correlate data regarding traffic accidents, drivers,
motor vehicles, and roadways. Any such grant may only be used by
such State to establish and maintain a comprehensive computerized
traffic safety recordkeeping system or to obtain and operate
components to support highway safety priority programs identified
by the Secretary under this section. Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, if a report, list, schedule, or survey is
prepared by or for a State or political subdivision thereof under
this subsection, such report, list, schedule, or survey shall not
be admitted as evidence or used in any suit or action for damages
arising out of any matter mentioned in such report, list, schedule,
or survey.
(2) No State may receive a grant under this subsection in more
than two fiscal years.
(3) The amount of the grant to any State under this subsection
for the first fiscal year such State is eligible for a grant under
this subsection shall equal 10 per centum of the amount apportioned
to such State for fiscal year 1985 under this section. The amount
of a grant to any State under this subsection for the second fiscal
year such State is eligible for a grant under this subsection shall
equal 10 per centum of the amount apportioned to such State for
fiscal year 1986 under this section.
(4) A State is eligible for a grant under this subsection if -
(A) it certifies to the Secretary that it has in operation a
computerized traffic safety recordkeeping system and identifies
proposed means of upgrading the system acceptable to the
Secretary; or
(B) it provides to the Secretary a plan acceptable to the
Secretary for establishing and maintaining a computerized traffic
safety recordkeeping system.
(5) The Secretary, after making the deduction authorized by the
second sentence of subsection (c) of this section for fiscal years
1985 and 1986, shall set aside 10 per centum of the remaining funds
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section for the
purpose of making grants under this subsection. Funds set aside
under this subsection shall remain available for the fiscal year
authorized and for the succeeding fiscal year and any amounts
remaining unexpended at the end of such period shall be apportioned
in accordance with the provisions of subsection (c) of this
section.
(l) Law Enforcement Vehicular Pursuit Training. - A State shall
actively encourage all relevant law enforcement agencies in such
State to follow the guidelines established for vehicular pursuits
issued by the International Association of Chiefs of Police that
are in effect on the date of enactment of this subsection or as
revised and in effect after such date as determined by the
Secretary.
(m) Consolidation of Grant Applications. - The Secretary shall
establish an approval process by which a State may apply for all
grants under this chapter through a single application process with
one annual deadline. The Bureau of Indian Affairs shall establish a
similar simplified process for applications for grants from Indian
tribes under this chapter.