Traffic Safety: NHTSA's Improved Oversight Could Identify Opportunities to Strengthen Management and Safety in Some States

Our July 2008 report, "Traffic Safety: NHTSA's Improved Oversight Could Identify Opportunities to Strengthen Management and Safety in Some States," found that states experienced several common problems in managing highway traffic safety grants. We recommended that NHTSA, as part of its oversight process, periodically analyze on a national level all recommendations it made to states to identify common challenges to focus its oversight and provide states with more targeted help, such as training or technical assistance. In 2009, NHTSA implemented an electronic tracking system that retains documentation on the recommendations NHTSA made to states during its reviews. NHTSA officials indicated that this new system facilitates an analysis of broad trends in oversight findings and recommendations, and NHTSA has used this information to target its training. Specifically, as of October 2009, NHTSA, in partnership with the Governors Highway Safety Association, has offered training on common challenges, including planning and administration, equipment and indirect costs, and performance measures.

In our July 2008 report, "Traffic Safety: NHTSA's Improved Oversight Could Identify Opportunities to Strengthen Management and Safety in Some States," we recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), as part of its oversight, periodically assess the extent to which states have implemented NHTSA recommendations and, in cases when states have not, identify the barriers and fine tune future recommendations as needed. In response, NHTSA reviewed the forms it uses to track recommendations and state responses to ensure they adequately document the progress states are making. In addition, officials have used this information to develop webinars in conjunction with the Governors Highway Safety Association to help States address common issues that prevent the states from implementing NHTSA's recommendations.

In 2008, we analyzed NHTSA's management reviews and found that states consistently had problems monitoring subgrantee activities and expenditures, which can prevent and detect misuse of federal funds. We recommended that NHTSA identify options, such as new guidance or training for states, to strengthen state monitoring of subgrantee performance, activities, and expenditures. In response, NHTSA improved state monitoring of subgrantees by taking steps such as conducting four monitoring activities per state each federal fiscal year, including at least one on-site observation of state staff while these staff were monitoring a subgrantee. It also added monitoring, oversight, audit and internal management controls to three of its training courses. NHTSA recently reported that, as a result of these efforts, state personnel were more proactive in developing programs, policies, and procedures to improve the timely and effective use of Federal highway safety funds and in preventing and detecting fraud, waste, and abuse. As a result, NHTSA may better ensure that funds are used for their intended purpose and for programs that will help the state meet safety goals.

In our July 2008 report on NHTSA's oversight of state management of State and Community Highway Safety formula grant funding, we found that, as part of its oversight reviews, NHTSA consistently recommended that states increase the amount of spending of the federal grants states received each year. NHTSA officials believed that increasing spending rates might contribute to improving safety outcomes by expanding the number or scope of safety programs states implement each year. We made a recommendation for NTHSA develop a mechanism to identify the reasons for low annual rates of grant expenditures and solutions that could help address these challenges. In response, NHTSA provided technical assistance in the form of a policy proposal to Congress to consider in developing their reauthorization proposal. As part of its proposal, NTHSA provided language that officials believed would make it easier for states to spend grant funds, including simplifying the requirements, allowing states to combine funds for multi-state activities, and allowing high performance states more flexibility in spending grant funds

In our July 2008 report on NHTSA's oversight of state management of State and Community Highway Safety formula grant funding, we found that NHTSA directed corrective reviews to states with the consistently high alcohol-related fatality rates or low safety belt use and lower-than-average improvement in these measures over time. However, states with a high number of fatalities but average or low rate of fatalities would not receive the type of in-depth programmatic review that could identify opportunities to reduce fatalities. We made a recommendation for NHTSA to identify options to target additional safety expertise and technical assistance to states with a high number of fatalities that would not qualify for additional formal reviews. In response, NHTSA refined its processes for directing expertise by providing several states with demonstration projects on alcohol-impaired driving as well as additional technical expertise focused on using ignition interlocks as a strategy to reduce alcohol-impaired driving. NHTSA recently reported that the success of these demonstration projects has resulted in expanded use of these resources to states beyond those initially participating in the demonstration projects. For example, two states participated in the original Ignition Interlock Institute, and as of August of 2011 about 30 states participated.