Senior Reporter
FMCSA Announces Plans for Crash-Accountability Demonstration Program
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on July 7 announced plans to begin a demonstration program to evaluate a potential crash-accountability policy change allowing certain nonpreventable crashes to be removed from carriers’ crash indicator safety score.
The policy change is being considered after long-standing industry concerns that all crashes are being recorded in carrier’s safety scores, whether or not the carrier was at fault.
The demonstration program could take two years or more, the agency said.
The crash-removal process could be generated by a request for data review accompanied by “full documentation” of a crash, the agency said.
"ATA hopes this demonstration project is a step toward a more robust and complete system for carriers to dispute and ultimately strike crashes that were not the fault of the commercial driver," said Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations. "We look forward to monitoring FMCSA’s progress as they advance this important program. By improving crash accountability and data, FMCSA can improve the performance and accuracy of the CSA monitoring system — a goal ATA wholeheartedly supports."
Although a date for beginning the demonstration program has yet to be determined, the agency said it was considering allowing the removal of crashes from a carrier’s safety record when a commercial motor vehicle was struck by motorists convicted of driving under the influence, driving in the wrong direction, striking a CMV in the rear or striking a CMV when it was legally stopped.
FMCSA also is considering allowing carriers to file requests for data reviews for crashes in which a motor carrier struck an animal and those in which a motorist that struck a CMV was speeding or attempting to commit suicide, as well as crashes due to infrastructure failure.
“This is an issue that the agency has worked on for quite some time,” Joe DeLorenzo, director of FMCSA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance, said in a phone conference.
The agency said it would accept comments on the proposal for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, expected in the next few days. (See details.)
DeLorenzo said the demonstration program is intended to “add meat” to a January 2015 FMCSA study announcement seeking industry comment.
The agency’s updated proposal included suggestions by ATA, DeLorenzo said.
However, he said FMCSA did not agree with ATA’s suggestion that the agency use police reports as the standard of who “was found responsible by law enforcement for the crash.”
“Previous research by the agency showed that police accident reports do not generally provide a clear determination as the preventability of a crash,” the agency said in its written announcement. “Relying on a conviction related to one of the crash scenarios described ensure the agency will have a clear record on which to base its determination.”
