Inside This Issue...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced the awarding of a grant aimed at improving highway safety involving commercial vehicles. The grant, awarded to AAMVA, focuses on reducing fatalities in work zones, increasing enforcement in rural areas, and recognizing individuals or agencies that have succeeded in improving highway safety in commercial vehicles. The grant creates, educates and promotes awards to those entities who achieve specific goals of improving highway safety. The program includes the presentation of the awards at AAMVA’s Annual International Conference and recognition of those awards in appropriate national publications. Visit the AAMVA Law Enforcement Web site for more information. The deadline for nominations has been extended through Aug. 4, 2008. Download a copy of the nomination form and criteria here.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published Final Guidelines to interpret and implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. The final guidelines have been published in the July 2, 2008 Federal Register. Effective July 2, 2008, the registry information must include "[a] photocopy of a valid driver's license or identification card issued to the sex offender by a jurisdiction." The requirement can be satisfied by including a digitized photocopy of the specified documents in the central registry database for each sex offender to whom such a document has been issued. Alternatively, it can be satisfied by including in the central registry database links or identifying numbers that provide access in other databases (such as a Department of Motor Vehicles database) to the information that would be shown by such a photocopy. As noted, this requirement pertains to sex offenders to whom driver's licenses or identification cards have been issued. It does not mean that jurisdictions must issue driver's licenses or identification cards to sex offenders to whom they would not otherwise issue such documents in order to create this type of information for inclusion in the registry. View the July 2, 2008 Federal Register notice for more details.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced a new rule on June 30 that will make it more difficult for transportation workers to cheat on their required drug tests by requiring drug testing labs to analyze every test for tampering. Peters said the new rule would cover the nation’s approximately 12.1 million transportation employers, safety-sensitive transportation employees, collectors, labs, and medical review officers. She noted that under the terms of the rule, labs would no longer have the option of testing urine samples for signs of cheating, but instead would be required to test every specimen for possible adulterants and urine substitutes. The rule also requires collectors to observe all tests for transportation workers who return to their jobs after a previous test failure. Peters added that the Department of Transportation (DOT) would treat any invalid test results as the same as a refusal to be tested by any employee who admits to tampering with or adulterating their test. DOT regulates drug and alcohol testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees in the aviation, motor carrier, railroad, transit, pipeline, and maritime industries. DOT publishes rules on who must conduct drug and alcohol tests, when to conduct those tests, and what procedures to use when testing. The Drug and Alcohol Testing Final Rule was published June 25, 2008 in the Federal Register.  The effective date of the Final Rule is Aug. 25, 2008.

On June 30, 2008, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) posted an advance notice to notify states of the anticipated amount of funds to be apportioned under 23 U.S.C. 104, effective Oct. 1, 2008. Also, the notice provides the anticipated apportionments for the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program (HBRRP) under 23 U.S.C. 144; Equity Bonus under 23 U.S.C. 105; and the Appalachian Development Highway System under Section 1116, the Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program under Section 1303, and the Safe Routes to School Program under Section 1404 pursuant to the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Public Law 109-59. It should be noted that the anticipated apportionment amounts are subject to change before issuing the certificates of apportionment, which are effective on Oct. 1, 2008. Go to http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/notices/n4510682.htm for more information.

National Teen Driver Safety Week is Oct. 19-25, 2008, and AAMVA is lending support to this worthwhile effort. Did you know that the presence of one passenger doubles the fatal crash risk for a teen driver (ages 16-19 years)--two or more peer passengers can increase fatal crash risk by four to five times. A study of older child passenger (ages 8 to 17) crash fatalities found that one of the biggest factors for death was a driver under the age of 20. Most teens do not perceive novice teen drivers to be "inexperienced." They also do not consider carrying peer passengers to be a particular safety risk for novice teen drivers. Jurisdictions can help too! Take the survey then mark your calendar! Between now and July 9, participate in a Web-based survey of traffic safety professionals and school-based practitioners. We also encourage you to pass this survey opportunity on to interested colleagues, by forwarding this e-mail or posting to applicable listservs. In late July-early September, a complete set of download-ready tools will be made available from www.chop.edu/youngdrivers by the week of Sept. 8, courtesy of State Farm Insurance Companies® and CHOP. Look for informational Webinars and tools to be available beginning in late July (through early September) that will help practitioners and organizers plan for National Teen Driver Safety Week. Look to www.chop.edu/youngdrivers for regular updates. For more information, contact Karen Morton.

In response to user requests, AAMVA University is offering an advanced round of CDLIS courses beginning on Thursday, July 10 at 2pm EDT with the 3-Year Calculation of Serious Violations. There will also be new courses including Advanced ACD, Improving Data Quality, Error Detection and Resolution, a series of three courses on FEWS (Fraud Emergency Warning System), and the Advanced UNI courses. Our goal is to provide the most up-to-date information to all persons involved in the CDLIS licensing and enforcement process including law enforcement, court officials, front-end licensing personnel, and IT/support staffs. Spread the word to anyone you think might benefit–the more people who are better informed the easier your job will be! All courses are free for jurisdiction members and are delivered on the Internet with live instructors and subject matter experts available to answer your questions. To view course descriptions and attend any of these courses, self-register on the training site at http://aamva.webroom.com and self-enroll in any of the available courses. If you have questions or need assistance, e-mail trainer@aamva.org.

AAMVA University will conduct Fraudulent Document Recognition (FDR) Level II Training from Aug. 19 to 22 in Columbus, Ohio. This four-day course demonstrates how participants can contribute to fraud prevention efforts. The course combines the material from FDR Level I with a more in-depth look at covert security features. Participants will engage in a hands-on experience evaluating various documents using UV lights and magnification loupes to build awareness of altered and counterfeited documents. There is no pre-requisite for this course. For more information, visit the events section of www.aamva.org or contact Linda Honig at lhonig@aamva.org or (866) 908-8270. The cut-off for discounted hotel rates is July 17.

The July 11, 2008, room cut-off is almost here so make your reservation with the hotel today while accommodations are still available. Mention the AAMVA Law Institute to receive the special conference room rate. Don't forget to pre-register for the event!

The 2008 Fall Workshop takes place Oct. 27-30, in Tampa, Florida at the Hyatt Regency Tampa. Agenda and program information will be available soon! Find out first—sign up for e-mails on Workshop Updates today!

The AAMVA Code Dictionary Working Group (ACD WG) has approved a new ACD Manual (Release 3.0.0). This release adds two new withdrawal codes. Related documentation can be found on the AAMVA Web site at http://www.aamva.org/TechServices/AppServ/CDLIS/Documentation.htm.AAMVA has scheduled two, one-hour overview sessions to provide details of the two new withdrawal codes and the timelines for annual releases on the following days:

• Wednesday, July 9, 2:00 pm EDT (webinarID = 600-835-545)
• Thursday, July 10, 2:00 pm EDT (webinarID = 288-069-037)

To participate, go to https://www1.gotowebinar.com/ and click on the "Join a Webinar" button on the left. Enter the appropriate webinar ID and your e-mail address. The password is ‘ACD300’ (the last two characters are zeroes). Address any questions to Greg Sensiba via e-mail, or at (703) 908-2822, or the chair of the ACD WG, Steve Monson via e-mail, or at (303) 205-5829.

The next AAMVA CIO Outreach conference call is scheduled for Monday, July 21, 2008, from 4 to 5pm EDT. These meetings address IT issues that are relevant to the CIOs of the DMVs (in both the United States and Canada) and concerns that are relevant to their day-to-day jobs. A copy of the draft agendas and minutes from previous meetings can be found in the IT Discipline area of AAMVA's Web site. The conference call telephone number and conference ID can be found at the top of the agenda. Send requests for future agenda topics to Greg Sensiba via e-mail or at (703) 908-2822.

If you haven’t already done so, please respond to the following surveys:

• Oregon – Older Driver Testing (Ends 07/31/2008)
• Pennsylvania – Interpreters (Ends 07/21/2008)
• Maryland – Knowledge Testing (Ends 07/07/2008)
• California – Boating Under the Influence (Ends 07/07/2008)
• Oklahoma – License Plate Reissue (Ends 07/09/2008)