FMCSA fine-tunes heavy truck accident reporting data in new pilot program

A motor carrier that is rear-ended while standing still at a red light no longer would have that non-preventable accident logged against his or her government safety record under a new pilot program that truckers are praising.
 
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is applauding a two-year Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) pilot program that would allow carriers to have non-preventable crashes stricken from their record.
 
At issue is a portion of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program that identifies and addresses motor carrier safety problems before crashes occur.
 
Since its inception in 2010, the CSA has used seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs), which includes a Crash Indicator BASIC.
 
FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) has been under review since early 2015. The agency now is proposing a demonstration program to determine the “efficacy” of a program to conduct preventability determinations on certain types of crashes.
 
As it currently stands, the crash data reported by Police Accident Reports (PARs) to FMCSA by the states does not specify a motor carrier’s rose in the crash or whether that crash was preventable.
 
Trucking industry executives have complained this is unfair. For instance, if an 18-wheeler is stopped at a red light and that truck is hit from behind by an inattentive motorist, that accident nevertheless is reported as a “crash” even though the trucker could do little to avoid it.
 
While the public SMS website provides information on these recordable motor carrier crashes, the Crash Indicator BASIC percentiles created by the system have never been publicly available, FMCSA says.
 
The Crash Indicator BASIC percentiles are available only to motor carriers who log on to view their own data. They are also available to FMCSA investigators and law enforcement, however.
 
“Research on this issue conducted by FMCSA, as well as independent organizations, has determined that crash involvement, regardless of role in the crash, is a strong indicator of future crash risk,” FMCSA says in a notice in the Federal Register announcing the new pilot program.
 
“FMCSA’s recently completed SMS Effectiveness Test shows that, as a group, motor carriers with high percentiles in the Crash Indicator BASIC have crash rates that are 85 percent higher than the national average.”

FMCSA officials say that although The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act does not require this program, the agency’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) reviewed the treatment of preventability in the SMS once the National Academies of Science complete a study on the matter.
 
Industry feedback also was a factor, FMCSA officials said. Proposing this program is a first step toward addressing those comments. By gathering data at this time, FMCSA will be able to provide the MCSAC with more data when considering a broader crash preventability program, according to the agency. By testing these limited crash scenarios, FMCSA says it will be able to determine how often they are deemed “Not Preventable” and will be able to get experience operating a program to develop cost and resource estimates for any larger program.
 
But FMCSA admits because that data includes all crashes—without regard to preventability—“stakeholders have expressed concern that it may not identify the highest-risk motor carriers for interventions,” according to the agency.
 
While that information is not available on FMCSA’s website, some shippers have required their motor carriers to disclose this information before committing to a contract officer, shippers and carriers say.
 
“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,” outgoing ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “(FMCSA’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 also is proposing 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.
 
ATA says it will be “monitoring FMCSA’s progress” during this pilot program. “By improving crash accountability and data, FMCSA can improve the performance and accuracy of the CSA monitoring system – a goal ATA wholeheartedly supports,” Graves added.