Attachment J.4, GO Teams Technical Assistance for Traffic Records Systems.pdf

GO Teams: Technical Assistance for Traffic Records Systems

Introduction NHTSA’s Traffic Records GO Team program aims to help States improve their traffic records systems by deploying teams of subject matter experts to deliver tailored traffic records-related technical assistance and training based on States’ actual needs. Each GO Team will consist of up to three subject matter experts who will work a maximum combined total of 120 hours. This program is designed to provide additional resources and assistance for State traffic records professionals as they work to better their traffic records data collection, management, and analysis capabilities.

States are encouraged to submit GO Team requests that address a specific traffic records improvement need, either highlighted during a State’s traffic records assessment or identified by the State’s Traffic Records Coordinating Committee (TRCC) and Highway Safety Office.

A State may request specific technical assistance that (1) focuses on a targeted problem in the traffic records systems, or (2) provides technical training to State traffic records program managers in an area identified by the State. Key assistance topics should address an issue identified in the State’s traffic records strategic plan or identified during the State’s most recent traffic records assessment. The GO Team initiative will also be used to deliver existing outreach programs like the Crash Data Improvement Program (CDIP).

For a sampling of potential GO Team projects and how to apply, see below. For further information, please contact your NHTSA Regional Program Manager (RPM).

Sample GO Team Projects GO Teams are designed to help States address traffic records system issues ranging from pinpoint assistance with a single database to help with TRCC management, strategic planning, and data integration. Whatever the issue, however, it must have a clearly delineated scope appropriate to the GO Team program—generally a smaller scale, short-to-medium term need that a GO Team could have a real impact on. The following examples represent common challenges that could be of the appropriate scale for a GO Team.

TRCC Management and Strategic Planning

• Train TRCC coordinators and chairs to build an effective TRCC. Facilitate sessions with the full State TRCC to define their multiple roles in Traffic Records.

• Assist a State TRCC with their strategic planning. Train the TRCC on how to use the 4 box method, or similar decision-making methods to help prioritize grant requests.

• Facilitate discussions with key stakeholders (data collectors, managers and users) on a set of critical data items and data quality measurements to assess those items. Help the State develop a suite of data quality performance measures for a particular system.

• Advise a State in the pre-design phase for new or upgraded systems in order to share expertise on how to include data quality management/measurement functions within the RFP or internal IT design documents.

Crash Database

• Assist a State with the measurement of their crash data quality across the six performance attributes:

timeliness, completeness, accuracy, uniformity, integration, and accessibility. Help a State identify or develop appropriate performance measures and metrics to improve data quality.

• Train State crash data collectors, processors, maintainers, and users on the importance of quality crash data and how this helps to improve safety decisions.

Driver/Vehicle

• Help a State improve data quality by improving integration between various databases and creating, for example, an error/edit output for anytime a transfer failure occurs and a tracking process to ensure that found errors are corrected.

• Help a State develop strategies to improve vehicle data quality by ensuring vehicle owner records on the vehicle file are congruent with the driver’s record on the driver database—particularly useful in States where titles and registrations are processed by county offices.

• Improve the completeness and accuracy of the drivers’ history of convictions by helping the State to track shielded DUI convictions from the driver file through court diversions (e.g., reduced charges and failures to prosecute).

Roadway

• Help a State develop effective data governance plan that uses methods of data collection and management that support the detailed needs of individual areas of the DOT (e.g., bridge management using Pontis, pavement management, and the collection of traffic count data). This could help States to aggregate key data elements from their datasets to support management of their safety programs.

• Help a State develop an effective data governance plan to map out the integration of roadway data by identifying and maintaining critical data elements to support linkage/integration within the DOT and with other traffic records component datasets. A GO Team might help a State by reviewing the DOT’s current practices and capabilities using spatial and linear referencing to efficiently create a dataset(s) to support HSM tools (SafetyAnalyst and IHSDM) using the MIRE Fundamental Data Elements.

• Help a State develop protocols for data collection and maintenance that addresses innovative data collection techniques. For example, many DOT systems currently use legacy linear referencing as the location reference system (LRS), as well as GIS/GPS to collect and analyze data. A GO Team can help a State address the challenge of systematically using a uniform map base that supports a cross reference between their legacy linear referencing systems and coordinate-based spatial data.

Citation and Adjudication

• Evaluate existing manual citation processes, recommend an implementation plan that will move a State towards an electronic system and help to design an effective process flow.

• Help develop a "law table" to interpret the local charges and help States to harmonize local and state statute citations so that more accurate data can be collected.

• Help a State to improve the court reporting processes so deferred sentences are recorded on a driver record until the case is dismissed.

• Develop strategies to help the courts accept digitally-signed electronic citations. Evaluate existing court processes and tools and recommend a modernization plan. Define a full data and process architecture for court and adjudication systems.

Injury Surveillance

• States need hospital/EMS/medical examiner data to provide the FARS system with the information it requires. Data availability hinges on cooperation from the collecting agencies. Agencies often invoke HIPAA as a barrier to sharing data with the FARS analyst. A GO Team can facilitate discussions with data managers and help explain how the data will be used and that confidentiality will be maintained in order to move obtain a data-sharing agreement or MOU.

• Many States rely on KABCO scores to identify serious injury crashes. A GO Team could evaluate the available databases and facilitate discussions between data owners to allow for improved common understanding of the KABCO scores, encourage integration between agencies, and enable higher quality analysis.

Data Integration

• Evaluate available databases and facilitate discussions between data custodians to allow data sharing and integration between their respective agencies, and suggest how integrated data could be used to identify problems and recommend and evaluate countermeasures solutions.

• Assist a State in reviewing its traffic records databases to identify minor modifications to processes that would improve the individual data systems and highlight possible opportunities for integration.

Requesting a GO Team A State interested in requesting a GO Team will complete the brief application (attached below) for technical assistance or training and submit it to NHTSA via TRIPRS. Applications should be submitted by a State-designated representative, approved by both the State’s Highway Safety Office (HSO) and TRCC. States should contact their RPM for assistance in applying.

The application request should include the following information:

• A detailed description of the technical problem that the GO Team will need to address;

• A description of the specific technical assistance being requested from the GO Team;

• A description of the current and past efforts to address this problem;

• An explanation of how the GO Team assistance fits into the TRCC’s Strategic Plan;

• The anticipated improvements that the GO Teams are likely to provide to the State’s traffic records data systems; and

• The contact information of the State officials who will be tasked to work with the GO Team to address this problem.

The RPM will review the application to ensure that (a) the State has described their technical problem in sufficient detail so that NHTSA can identify the most appropriate technical assistance, and (b) requested assistance that is within the scope of NHTSA’s traffic records purview.

The NHTSA Traffic Records (TR) Team will review the request and identify up to three subject matter experts as the GO Team to address the State’s problem. The NHTSA TR Team will then host a conference call with the State applicant, the GO Team members, and the RPM to discuss the State’s request.

Following this initial conference call, the GO Team will contact the designated representative to gather more information to diagnose the State’s problem and recommend a course of action. Approximately one week after the initial conference call, NHTSA’s TR Team will host a second teleconference where the GO Team will present their work plan, proposed schedule of activities, milestones, and deliverables to the State representatives, NHTSA’s TR Team and RPM.

Technical Assistance The GO Team will travel to the State to adequately diagnose the State’s problem and provide appropriate technical assistance as needed. The GO Team leader will draft a final technical report that diagnoses the problem with the State’s traffic records system and recommends a course of action for the State to undertake to resolve this problem. The GO Team will submit this report to NHTSA, who will host a closeout webinar where the contractor shall debrief NHTSA and the State on the GO Team’s findings.

Technical Training The GO Team will work with the appropriate State traffic records professionals to design a curriculum to meet their training needs. The training should be no longer than 3 days and is not meant to supplant courses offered through the Transportation Safety Institute. The GO Team shall travel to the State to provide instruction only as needed. Whenever appropriate, the GO Team will attempt to deliver this training via webinar.

GO Teams: Technical Assistance for Traffic Records Systems