Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024
(a) An
organization seeking approval as a motor vehicle accident prevention course
sponsoring agency shall apply to the commissioner for approval in writing on
forms prescribed by the department. No one may conduct a course unless the
course has been approved by the Department of Motor Vehicles in accordance with
the standards set out in this Part.
(b) An organization which proposes to offer a
motor vehicle accident prevention course for point and insurance reduction
benefits must submit a completed application to the department for approval in
accordance with standards set out in this section and section
138.5
of this Part.
(c) An application
shall not be considered to be complete until all information and materials
required by this Part and article 12-B of the Vehicle and Traffic Law have been
submitted. The department shall either approve or deny an application for
course approval no later than 90 days following submission of a completed
application. In the event the department takes no action on an application
after 90 days following submission of a completed application, the application
shall be deemed denied.
(d) To be
approved by the department, a course must meet all of the following criteria:
(1) the course must have been given for at
least two years by the applicant agency or organization prior to the submission
of an application to the department;
(2) the applicant organization must provide,
at its own expense, verifiable research documentation showing evidence of the
course's effectiveness in terms of reduced convictions or accidents or both,
based on the criteria set forth in this section for initial course
approval;
(3) the course must
provide a minimum of 320 minutes of instruction with a certified instructor
present. The instruction must include active learning techniques (i.e., student
participation). If the course is conducted in one day, a minimum 30-minute
break must be allowed in addition to the instruction time. Such instruction
must address the following subject areas:
(i)
the concept of collision prevention, including a discussion of the factors
involved in traffic situations;
(ii) alcohol and drug use as a contributing
factor in motor vehicle collisions;
(iii) accident prevention
techniques;
(iv) the use of
occupant restraints;
(v) the risk
factors involved in driver attitude and behavior such as speeding, reckless and
aggressive driving, and improper lane use, etc.;
(vi) traffic laws in New York
State;
(vii) physical and mental
condition of drivers (i.e., age, vision, hearing, mobility, illness, fatigue,
etc.);
(viii) conditions and
strategies of driving; and
(ix)
city versus suburban driving and rural versus expressway driving;
(4) the course must use up-to-date
audio/visual aids such as films, slides, and videotapes which should not use
more than 25 percent of the presentation time. The balance of the presentation
time shall be led by a qualified instructor in an approved classroom based on
standards set out in section
138.8 of
this Part; and
(5) no course may be
offered in New York State by more than one sponsoring agency.
(e) Evaluation of motor vehicle
accident prevention course. This subdivision shall apply to all sponsoring
agencies applying for initial course approval.
(1) All sponsoring agency applicants shall
supply the department with proof of effectiveness consisting of verifiable
research documentation employing accepted research principles in order to
evaluate the impact of the New York State Point and Insurance Reduction
Program. The evidence shall be specific to the course submitted, and shall not
be more than five years old.
(2) An
independent audit of course evaluations may be requested by the department to
be performed at the expense of the sponsoring agency.
(3) The department may conduct its own
evaluation of any approved course offered for point and insurance reduction
benefits.
(4) Submission of any
fraudulent or intentionally misleading data will disqualify that organization
and all owners and principals from participating or approval in the accident
prevention course for a period of 10 years from the submission date.
(5) The effectiveness of the course will be
measured in terms of reduced convictions or accidents or both, based on the
course attendees (the treatment group) as compared to a matched group of
motorists who did not attend an accident prevention course (the control group)
during the same time frame. This documentation shall be based on motorist
records from the jurisdiction in which the course was given. The following
criteria shall be used for the purpose of this evaluation and all renewal
evaluations required under section
138.5(f)
of this Part:
(i) Treatment group.
(a) Each treatment group shall be comprised
of a minimum of 3,000 randomly selected motorists from course attendees. For
specialized courses, the sample treatment group shall be comprised of a minimum
number of 1,000 randomly selected drivers.
(b) The documentation shall include
conviction or accident data for each motorist for a minimum of 18 months prior
to the course completion date.
(c)
The documentation shall include conviction or accident data for each motorist
for a minimum of 18 months subsequent to the course completion date.
(ii) Control group.
(a) Each control group shall be comprised of
a number of motorists equal to that of the treatment group, but with no
previous course attendance, similar to the treatment group by sex, age,
geographic region, and, if possible, number of convictions or accidents during
the time frame equal to the treatment group.
(b) The documentation shall include
conviction or accident data for each motorist for a time frame prior to the
dummy attendance date equal to that of the treatment group.
(c) The documentation shall include
conviction or accident data for each motorist for a time frame subsequent to
the dummy attendance date equal to that of the treatment group.
(iii) Statistical procedures.
(a) A normally accepted statistical
procedure, applicable to the type of data and evaluative design used, which
compares quantifiable measures of performance before and after intervention,
for a treatment and control group may be used.
(b) The level of significance shall be at.10
or stronger.
(iv)
Miscellaneous.
(a) The documentation shall
contain a description of the sampling and analytic procedures used.
(b) The documentation shall include the
motorist identification number and the course completion date for all course
attendees should the Department of Motor Vehicles need to verify course
effectiveness using different motorists and statistical procedures.
(c) Applicants must supply, upon request, any
background documentation that serves as the basis for evaluation of the course,
such as drivers' abstracts, reports or other materials.
