Concerns With NHTSA's Data Collection Systems

Gao ID: 114188 January 16, 1981

GAO expressed concern to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that the Fatal Accident Reporting System's (FARS) annual reports were consistently late. NHTSA responded with assurances that the timeliness of the reporting system was improving.

GAO believes FARS has not really improved; in fact, it is currently worse. The 1978 FARS annual report, issued September 1979, was delayed 2 months beyond the estimated issuance date but was ahead of the prior years' issuance dates. However, the 1979 FARS annual report is still not available to the public. GAO maintains that the accident data become less useful as their release is delayed. GAO hopes that in the future NHTSA will explore every means possible to speed up its FARS data collection efforts, so that the results can be disseminated as quickly and as accurately as possible.



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