Identifying hazards and corrective safety measures on a national level to prevent highway accidents is complicated by the fact that data collection varies from state to state, according to the Government Accountability Office.

For example, the GAO found that some states entered crash information into their systems in a matter of weeks, while others took a year or more. While some systems were better than others, all had opportunities for improvement, GAO said.

In view of such problems related to the collecting and analyzing crash data from states’ police and sheriffs’ offices and other agencies, the GAO said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration might consider strengthening oversight measures to its existing “411”grant program.

GAO officials said NHTSA’s program was lacking in two main areas: First, the agency did not provide adequate guidance to ensure that states provided accurate and complete data on what they were accomplishing with their grants; and second, it did not have an effective process for monitoring progress.

NHTSA agreed to improve the problem in part by providing better oversight.