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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
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 and to increase public awareness of the
benefit of motor vehicles equipped with airbags, (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 (6)
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, 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); and
(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.
(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 subject to a
deduction not to exceed 5 per centum for the necessary costs of
administering the provisions of this section, and the remainder
shall be apportioned among the several States. 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 three-fourths of 1 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.
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