The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposes to collect information from Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel who operate ambulances on the roadway for a onetime voluntary study to evaluate the effectiveness of a fatigue mitigation intervention that delivers education and training. Up to 200 EMS agencies across the United States will be contacted and screened in order to recruit a total of 30 agencies to participate in the study. NHTSA anticipates contacting up to 100 EMS personnel per participating agency (3,000 total) to screen and recruit 1,500 eligible participants for the study. NHTSA expects 1,200 voluntary participants to complete the sign-up process, including providing demographic information and shift schedules, and to consent to participate in the 24-week study. Participants will complete a baseline survey that includes self-reported fatigue and sleepiness and will retake the survey halfway through the study and again at the end of the study. All participants will complete the ten ten-minute training modules during
the study period. Once the study is underway, participants will be asked to respond to daily text messages about sleepiness and fatigue for eight weeks of the 24-week study. Finally, NHTSA will ask 30 of the 1,200 participants to provide additional information by keeping a daily sleep diary for eight weeks and by taking a brief vigilance task test to measure fatigue at the beginning and end of each shift over
eight days.
US Code:
23 USC 403
Name of Law: Highway Safety Act
This is a new information collection supporting NHTSA's behavioral safety research program and its efforts to improve Emergency Medical Services. As such, it requires a program change to add the estimated 10,141 hours for the new information collection to existing burden.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.