Trucking association reiterates call for crash-risk revisions

Washington – A federal safety management system that includes data on all crashes involving commercial motor vehicles – not only incidents in which truckers were at fault – is unfair and should be changed, critics say.

The American Trucking Associations on March 25 submitted formal comments in response to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s January request for public feedback regarding its crash weighting analysis within the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

In its comments, ATA cited a March 21 crash on New York’s Staten Island. Three people were returning from a club shortly before 5 a.m. when the driver of the vehicle went the wrong way on a divided highway. A tractor-trailer could not avoid the oncoming vehicle, and the head-on crash killed two of the vehicle’s occupants.

“Under current protocol, this accident will be charged to the driver and the motor carrier and will remain on their records for two years as an indicator of safety,” the group said. “Indisputably, in this case the CMV driver and the motor carrier should not be held accountable as this tragic crash cannot be construed as indicative of the safety controls employed by the company and its drivers.”