Safe System Weekly | October 10, 2025
by Russ Martin
Welcome to this edition of Safe System Weekly! As of this writing, we’re in the continued second week of a federal government shutdown. We’re monitoring for transportation impacts. High profile strain seems to be falling on air traffic controllers, whose unpaid status is leading to flight delays nationwide. At least one U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) public meeting has been pushed further on the calendar. Elsewhere, nearly half of drivers killed in one study had THC in their blood, anti-drunk driving technology is ready to launch, and read a new CS blog post about how we can get better traffic safety data. Read onward!
Senate Confirms FMCSA Administrator and Other U.S. DOT Officials
Derek Barrs will now lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, filling a critical safety role. Other confirmed leaders include Michael Rutherford as the first Assistant Secretary for Multimodal Freight Infrastructure & Policy, Gregory Zerzan as General Counsel, and David Fink as Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration.
NHTSA Reschedules its Safety Research Portfolio Public Meeting
Perhaps due to the government shutdown, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will now host its summit on research at U.S. DOT headquarters November 20-21.
NHTSA Opens Probe on Tesla Full Self-Driving
The agency is launching an investigation into all Tesla vehicles equipped with this feature following multiple complaints and reports of red light running and driving against traffic.
Study: Half of Drivers Tested Positive for Cannabis Metabolite
A new study from Wright State University examined fatally injured drivers in Montgomery County, Ohio and found that 40% had active delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chief psychoactive metabolite of cannabis that is targeted by toxicology testing. The average THC level was 30.7 ng/mL, a threshold that far exceeds the legal limit of 2 to 5 ng/mL set by some states.
💡 The viability of ng/mL limits and their correlation to impairment are deeply contested, but this is showing at the very least that these individuals had a significant amount of the drug indicator in their system.
DADSS Prepares to License First Alcohol Detection Technology for Cars
The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety project has spent years developing innovative technology to passively detect driver impairment and prevent a car from starting. Now, the program is preparing to hand the technology package to automakers and suppliers for vehicle integration.
💡 This research team has truly developing amazing technology that shrinks infrared spectrometry devices down to the size of a matchbox, which function with a high degree of accuracy. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was directed by Congress (despite some opposition on the Hill) to develop rules to requires similar technology in all new vehicles. That rulemaking seems to have stalled, though recently-confirmed NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison has expressed his support for the concept. If this gets even more real, expect a critical national discussion about driver responsibility, false positives, access to mobility, and how far we can and need go to truly end drunk driving.
Crash Data Availability and Best Practices Across the U.S.
The New Jersey State Policy Lab examined how all states collect and report crash data. A universally recognized need is to obtain more non-fatal crash data for safety planning. Many states face challenges with the quality of crash data and inconsistency on how crashes are geographically mapped. Further, public dashboards are reinforced as a best practice to convey safety trends, and the public availability of raw crash data is very valuable for safety researchers.
💡 This author nodded along while reviewing this report. Many of the struggles cited are very real in the traffic records community and nearly universal.
Intersection Safety Cameras Reduce San Francisco Speeding
An initial analysis of the city’s first-in-the-state speed camera system shows a dramatic reduction in daily speeding violations.
Intelligent Speed Assistance: Ten Lessons From the Front Line
As advocates push for state laws to require dangerous speeding offenders to install automatic speed limiters, a set of tips and best practices have emerged for how to thoughtfully navigate this conversation.
The Future of Traffic Safety Data: A New CS Blog Post
From attending this summer’s Association of Transportation Safety Information Professionals (ATSIP) Traffic Records Forum, the CS safety team dives into what traffic records professionals are focused on, what are the common challenges, and how new technology like telematics, automation, and AI may (or may not) be game-changers.
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That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
Send me any updates you'd like me to include next week at rmartin@camsys.com or message me on LinkedIn.
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