In addition to the requirements provided in § 971.204, the SMS must meet the following requirements:

The tri-party partnership shall have an SMS for transportation systems providing access to and within National Forests and Grasslands, and funded under the FLHP.

The SMS may be based on the guidance in “Safety Management Systems: Good Practices for Development and Implementation.”3

3 “Safety Management Systems: Good Practices for Development and Implementation,” FHWA and NHTSA, May 1996, may be obtained at the FHWA, Office of Safety, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, or electronically at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/media/documents.htm. It is available for inspection and copying as prescribed at 49 CFR part 7.

The tri-party partnership shall utilize SMS to ensure that safety is considered and implemented, as appropriate, in all phases of transportation system planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operations.

The SMS may be utilized at various levels of complexity depending on the nature of the facility and/or network involved.

The SMS shall be designed to fit the FH program goals, policies, criteria, and needs and shall contain the following components:

An ongoing program for the collection, maintenance, and reporting of a database that includes:

Accident records with detail for analysis such as accident type using standard reporting descriptions (e.g., right-angle, rear-end, head-on, pedestrian-related, etc.), location, description of event, severity, weather, and cause;

An inventory of safety appurtenances such as signs, delineators, and guardrails (including terminals);

Traffic information including volume and vehicle classification (as appropriate); and

Accident rates by customary criteria such as location, roadway classification, and vehicle miles of travel.

Development, establishment, and implementation of procedures for:

Where appropriate, routine maintenance and upgrading of safety appurtenances including highway rail crossing safety devices, signs, highway elements, and operational features,

Identifying, investigating, and analyzing hazardous or potentially hazardous transportation system safety problems, roadway locations, and features;

Establishing countermeasures and setting priorities to correct the identified hazards and potential hazards.

Identification of focal points for all contacts at State, regional, tribal, and local levels to coordinate, develop, establish, and implement the SMS among the agencies.

While the SMS applies to appropriate transportation systems providing access to and within National Forests and Grasslands funded under the FLHP, the extent of system requirements (e.g., data collection, analyses, and standards) for low volume roads may be tailored to be consistent with the functional classification of the roads. However, adequate requirements should be included for each roadway to provide for effective inclusion of safety decisions in the administration of the FH program.