FMCSA wants to expand Crash Preventability Determination Program

Washington — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is seeking comment on potentially expanding a program intended to determine to what extent crashes involving commercial trucks and buses are preventable.

Adjusting the Crash Preventability Determination Program would help FMCSA “review even more crashes each year,” the agency says in a notice published in the April 13 Federal Register. “The use of more preventability information in assessing motor carriers will provide an improved indication of a motor carrier’s crash risk.”

FMCSA established the program in May 2020. The agency reviews crashes classified under 16 types while modifying information in its Safety Measurement System to delineate non-preventable crashes.

The proposal would add four new crash types:

• Commercial motor vehicles struck on the side by a driver operating in the same direction
• CMVs struck because another driver was entering the roadway from a private driveway or parking lot
• CMVs struck because another driver lost control of their vehicle
• Any other type of crash involving a CMV in which video demonstrates the sequence of events

Additionally, FMCSA wants to modify 11 existing crash types “to broaden” them and “allow more crashes to be eligible.” The proposed changes would double the program’s size, FMCSA says.

Between May 1, 2020, and Dec. 30, FMCSA received more than 39,000 requests for data review, the notice states. About 72.5% of the requests fell under an existing category, with approximately 96% of crashes classified as “not preventable.”

Comments on the proposal are due June 12.