Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens protections for people around disabled vehicles and improves data coordination and federal oversight to reduce roadside crashes, at the cost of added reporting burdens, capacity strains on resource-constrained agencies, and potential shifts in limited safety funding.
Drivers, passengers, and roadside pedestrians — including people near disabled vehicles — gain explicit protection because safety projects can now cover occupants and pedestrians associated with disabled vehicles.
State and local transportation agencies get clearer guidance, standardized crash criteria, mandatory working groups, and annual reporting, improving data-driven targeting of interventions and helping reduce fatal and nonfatal roadside and work zone crashes.
Congress and the public gain greater oversight and transparency of state use of work zone contingency funds through an annual FHWA report, enabling evidence-based recommendations and potential policy improvements.
State and local governments will face additional administrative and compliance costs to collect, standardize, and report detailed crash data and to participate in required working groups, straining budgets and staff.
Smaller or resource-constrained (often rural) state and local agencies may struggle to implement MMUCC and enhanced data-sharing, risking uneven implementation and widening disparities in safety improvements and data quality.
Broadening eligible projects to explicitly include disabled-vehicle related protections could shift limited Highway Safety Improvement Program funds toward these projects and away from other roadway safety priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands HSIP eligibility to include occupants and pedestrians of disabled vehicles and creates two federal working groups plus annual reporting to improve disabled-vehicle and work-zone safety data and planning.
Official title: Amend title 23, United States Code, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with respect to vehicle roadside crashes and work zone safety, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress February 12, 2026
Expands federal highway safety law to explicitly include occupants and pedestrians associated with disabled vehicles, creates two federal working groups to collect and publish crash data and strategic plans for disabled-vehicle and work-zone crashes, and requires annual reports on State use and effectiveness of work zone contingency funds. The bill adds cross-references in existing highway statutes and directs DOT, OSHA, FHWA, and other agencies to promote data sharing, adoption of Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC), and strategies to reduce roadside and work-zone deaths.