Trucking Group Salutes FMCSA’s Proposal on Crash Preventability

American Trucking Associations (ATA) expressed support for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s upcoming launch of a pilot program to allow carriers to have non-preventable crashes stricken from their record.

“Since FMCSA began using crash history to rate motor carriers’ safety, ATA has argued that crashes a driver could not have prevented shouldn’t be counted on a carrier’s safety record,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “Today’s announced pilot project is a step toward that goal and we appreciate FMCSA adopting ATA’s call to provide a way for carriers to strike these tragic, but non-preventable crashes from their record.”

Under FMCSA’s proposed demonstration, carriers would be able to challenge certain crashes where it is plainly evident the commercial vehicle is not at fault. FMCSA proposed to include crashes in which an opposing motorist was driving under the influence, driving the wrong direction or struck the truck in the rear or while it was properly parked. Also included are single vehicle accidents involving an animal strike, suicide by truck or infrastructure failure.

“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,” Graves said. “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.”

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