NHTSA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Partnership with the ABA Judicial Division

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: NHTSA’s mission is to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards and enforcement activity.

NHTSA has undertaken concerted efforts to reach out to judges and to the public through its Impaired Driving Division.  Judges, particularly those who work in the limited jurisdiction courts of our states, counties and municipalities, are often overlooked in education and communication opportunities. They often lack the ability to gain and to share the knowledge needed to resolve the legal and evidentiary issues that challenge them daily in adjudicating impaired driving and other motor vehicle-related cases.

The ABA Judicial Division and NHTSA have forged a partnership to reach out to these judges. Through the Judicial Fellow program and the Judicial Outreach Liaison program, we have worked to develop a more thorough public understanding of traffic safety issues and the adjudication of motor vehicle cases.  Through these programs, NHTSA and the Judicial Division can focus their outreach efforts on highway safety topics to target one or more regions of the country.

Resources

Distracted Driving: NHTSA and DOT launched a new website  that is a terrific resource for anyone wanting to learn more about this deadly practice, and what the Department is doing to address the problem. 

Highway to Justice: The ABA Judicial Division and NHTSA produce a quarterly newsletter on traffic safety issues.  View the current issue.

Traffic Resource Center for Judges: The Traffic Resource Center for Judges is a co­operative effort between the U.S. Department of Transportation/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to establish a resource for judges, court administrators, court clerks, and other court staff on issues related to traf­fic adjudication. It is an integrated clearing­house of information as well as a training and technical assistance resource to improve court decision-making and processing of impaired driving, drugged driving, distracted driving, commercial driving, and other cases that affect traffic safety.

Impaired Driving Update


  • State of the Knowledge Report – NHTSA has published a report entitled, Alcohol and Highway Safety : A Review of the State of the Knowledge.  

  • Digest of Impaired Driving and Selected Beverage Control Laws - The 25th Edition of the Digest of Impaired Driving and Selected Beverage Control laws has been updated as of March 1, 2010. It contains Summary Charts of Key Provisions of State Impaired Driving and Selected Beverage control Laws. (Please note that the document is 569 pages in length.)

  • STSI Page Updated – NHTSA has updated its State Traffic Safety Information (STSI) web pages with the most recent (2009) Vehicle Miles of Travel provided by FHWA.  STSI shows selected traffic safety data for each state for 5 years (currently, 2005 – 2009).  STSI also has the option, if you load the Google Earth Plug-in, to show the location, using “pin maps”, of fatal crashes of various types.  The direct link to STSI is: www.nhtsa.gov/STSI.  You can also get to STSI from NHTSA’s web page: http://www.nhtsa.gov/NCSA, by scrolling down the left side of the page and clicking on “State Traffic Safety Information (STSI)” and then “Search for State-Specific Information.”

  • Traffiic Safety Legislation Tracking Database - The National Conference of State Legislatures works in cooperation with the NHTSA to bring you up to date, real time information about traffic safety bills that have been introduced in the 50 states and the District of Columbia through its Traffic Safety Legislation Tracking Database.

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Judicial Fellows

Judicial Fellows serve as teachers, writers, community outreach advocates, consultants, liaisons, reporters, and spokespersons. Their goal is to improve the delivery of justice and improve highway and pedestrian safety through education, collegiality, communication and community outreach activities. The Fellows have the necessary background and skills to perform the important and valued work of the positions.

 

Judicial Outreach Liaisons (JOL)

The ABA Judicial Division and NHTSA have selected judges from one of the states within targeted NHTSA regions to act as a Judicial Outreach Liaisons.  These JOLs work with the NHTSA Regional Offices to educate and mobilize support for NHTSA’s traffic safety activities.

Programs

The ABA Judicial Division and the NHTSA are committed to providing educational information to members of the judiciary who adjudicate traffic safety cases. In the summer of 2011 three webinars were held which featured six experts who spoke and took questions on topics of interest.


Those webinars (90 minutes each) can be accessed at the links here

If you would like to be added to a mailing list for future webinars on traffic safety topics, please send your contact information to: Gena Taylor at 312.988.6716.

Contact

For questions, comments and more information, please contact the Judicial Division.