NHTSA finishes Crashworthiness Data System revamp

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday that it has finished redesigning the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS).

The NHTSA used a reasonably simple process to redesign the system, which provides a representative sample of police-reported motor-vehicle traffic crashes. The Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, specifies the professional principles and practices that state transportation agencies should follow, and the NHTSA said it followed applicable OMB standards and guidelines when redesigning the system.
 
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was ordered by Congress to review the NHTSA and NASS-CDS system after reports showed that in 2010, motor vehicle crashes resulted in the loss of 33,000 lives and another 2.2 million injuries, costing the economy almost $900 billion. Because the NASS-CDS system and sample design were created in 1988, shifts in the population and economy have made it necessary to redesign the sample system.

As of January 2015, the NHTSA said it plans to expand the NASS-CDS with a new sample system, called the Crash Investigation Sampling System, or CISS. Unfortunately, the administration did not meet the deadline to report on the benefits of adding the new system and increasing NASS-CDS.