Opinion: Decoding the Safety Enigma With Good Data
I>Administrator
ederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
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Moreover, we witnessed a five-year reduction in total truck-related fatalities from 1997 to 2002. However, preliminary 2003 crash statistics the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released showed a break in the downward trend, with fatalities increasing slightly. It was a reminder that we still have much more work to do.
FMCSA has been taking stock of the way we approach our mission. We are constantly looking for new, innovative solutions ¾ working closely with industry, enforcement and government stakeholders to improve safety.
I am convinced we must address more proactively one critical factor in the safety arena: prevention. We must work harder to identify high-risk carriers and drivers and remove them from service before crashes occur. The critical factor in prevention is data.
Improving data quality poses many challenges. Considerable amounts of safety performance data come from state and local enforcement agencies. In addition, data management is multimodal and multijurisdictional — no single entity within any government manages all the data needed to support effective enforcement.
At FMCSA we are working closely with our state partners to enhance data quality. Our assistance ranges from established programs, such as the Commercial Vehicle Analysis Reporting System, CVARS, to a new requirement that each state include its strategies for improving data collection and management when applying for enforcement funding.
One of FMCSA’s leading information tools for analyzing safety performance is the Motor Carrier Safety Status Measurement System, or SafeStat. A comprehensive database openly accessible through the agency’s Web site, SafeStat provides valuable information on motor carrier safety. By reporting each listed carrier’s crash, inspection, compliance review, violation, out-of-service and enforcement history, SafeStat helps carriers measure their own safety performance and evaluate their competition.
SafeStat’s effectiveness is proven. Researchers for FMCSA recently found that carriers designated as “at-risk” had a crash rate 112% greater than — more than double — those of their competitors not identified as safety risks. Clearly, SafeStat is identifying carriers that bend the industry’s curve on safety performance.
While effective, SafeStat can only get better with improvements in data quality. The system’s carrier profiles are only as good as the data provided to us. Focusing our improvement efforts on data quality concerns, we have discovered that some of the information provided on carriers is potentially incomplete and, consequently, could be misleading. We are looking very carefully at the methods of collecting and analyzing safety performance data, with a goal of establishing more reliable data quality measures.
One program improvement is called DataQs, an electronic means for carriers to file concerns about data that FMCSA and states collect and that FMCSA releases to the public. All states and FMCSA field offices are enrolled in this initiative, initiated earlier this year.
We also have made a critical decision that will have a particular impact on carriers. By the end of summer, we will temporarily remove the accident Safety Evaluation Area (SEA) and the overall SafeStat scores from the Web site. The accident SEA relies on crash reports, which tend to lag behind other data’s arrival. The delayed receipt of crash report data can skew the overall carrier scoring. We recognize the need to present more accurate data.
The accident SEA and overall SafeStat scores will be reposted as soon as we are assured the supporting data are more timely, complete and accurate. In the meantime, the driver, vehicle and safety management SEA values will remain on the Web site so all stakeholders can continue to assess a carrier’s relative safety status in these areas.
The accident SEA will remain a valuable component of the SafeStat ranking system, but its use will be limited to FMCSA and state enforcement staff, who will evaluate this information internally to help identify high-risk carriers. Moreover, carriers will be able to access their own accident SEA and overall SafeStat scores through their standard company safety profiles, sustaining their ability to conduct self-assessments of their own safety performance.
The trucking industry can help in this effort by utilizing the DataQs system to keep the states and FMCSA apprised of inaccuracies. Additionally, carriers should ensure their registration information is current by submitting MCS-150 Motor Carrier Identification Report updates regularly to FMCSA. We will continue to call upon industry and state stakeholders for ongoing assistance in this effort.
Throughout the Department of Transportation and FMCSA, we firmly believe all our actions increase safety. We are confident that improving the quality of safety performance data, a significant piece of a very complex puzzle, will have a huge impact, improving safety and productivity for all.
The primary mission of FMCSA, an agency of the Department of Transportation, is to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. It is based in Washington.
This article appears in the May 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
