In the wake of a report last month on crashes involving large trucks, a spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the agency plans to further examine the role legal drug use, drivers’ hours of service and speed may play in such accidents.

Last month’s report on large truck crashes raises the question of what should be done from a program and policy standpoint to reduce the risk factors, such as speeding or following too closely, that are associated with accidents, said a trucking industry official.

The American Chemistry Council last week asked a federal appeals court to overturn a Department of Transportation regulation governing the loading and unloading of hazardous materials, saying it could lead to a layer of inconsistent and burdensome rules.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it will consider allowing drivers with insulin-treated diabetes to operate large trucks. Most people with diabetes have been barred from driving trucks for 35 years.

Highway crashes involving a large truck and an automobile are more likely to be caused by the car driver than the truck driver, according to the federal government’s top truck-safety agency.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is preparing to resume posting fleet safety ratings compiled for its SafeStat program, two years after criticism by the Transportation Department’s inspector general caused the agency to remove the rankings from its Web site.

Saying it was concerned trucking could lose some of its operating flexibility, the American Trucking Associations said it has intervened on the side of the federal government in a lawsuit by Public Citizen that challenges the revised driver hours-of-service rule.

The safety director of American Trucking Associations — which recently called for factory-installed speed governors on large trucks — said requiring the use of governors would probably need a government mandate.

TAMPA, Fla. — Annette Sandberg, preparing to depart March 4 after three years as head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said she was proud of the agency’s progress in improving the safety of large trucks, but she expressed regrets over the agency’s efforts to revise hours-of-service rules.

TAMPA, Fla. — Annette Sandberg said she will sign off on several long-awaited regulations before stepping down as head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration next month.