ATA Says FMCSA Shouldn't Count Crashes When Trucker Isn't at Fault
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should immediately establish a process to remove from motor carriers' records crashes where it's plainly evident that the carrier was not to blame, said the American Trucking Associations. Carriers' scores in FMCSA's safety monitoring system, Compliance, Safety, Accountability, are based on all carrier-involved crashes, including those that the companies' drivers didn't cause and couldn't have prevented, ATA said, citing cases where a driver of a stolen car crosses grassy median causing a crash or a suspected drunk driver rear-ended a gasoline tanker. "Including these types of crashes in the calculation of carriers' CSA scores, paints an inappropriate picture for shippers and others that these companies are somehow unsafe," said ATA President Bill Graves.
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The FMCSA shelved plans to make just these sorts of determinations that the carrier wasn't at fault more than a year ago, saying it needed further study, ATA said. ATA said the FMCSA should establish an interim process for crashes where it's "plainly evident" that the crash should not count against the trucking company. "We don't need more research to conclude that it is inappropriate to use crashes like these to paint the involved trucking companies and professional drivers as unsafe," Graves said.