The Importance of Traffic Crash Reports for National Databases
Kenneth W. Rutland, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  krutland@nhtsa.dot.gov
Telephone:  (202) 493-0055

Ken Rutland is a Licensed Professional Engineer with over 25 years experience in the traffic, transportation and highway safety field.  He is the Division Chief for the State Data Reporting Systems Division of NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA).  He is also the Program Manager of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) program, the national fatality database in the State Data Reporting Systems Division.  Prior to the current assignment, Mr. Rutland was the Chief of the Field Operations Branch of the Crash Investigation Division of NCSA, responsible for the operation of the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), Crashworthiness Data System (CDS), and the NASS General Estimates System (GES) databases.  He also worked in the Safety Performance Standards office in NHTSA as a Safety Standards Engineer involved in developing a number of crash avoidance rulemaking standards responsible for cost, weight and lead-time studies on significant technical engineering issues regarding motor vehicles such as air bag sensor systems, heavy truck ABS, interior padding, variable valve timing, and ISOFIX child restraint hardware.  Mr. Rutland received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of South Carolina, Masters of Science in Transportation Engineering from George Washington University and an A.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Energy Systems from George Washington University.  He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.