NTSB recommends audit on FMCSA’s oversight of commercial carriers

Washington – The National Transportation Safety Board has found safety “concerns” with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s oversight of commercial carriers, and is recommending that an audit be conducted on the agency’s review process.

According to NTSB, FMCSA’s oversight overly relies on “focused compliance reviews” that are initiated when a series of crashes or safety violations causes a commercial motor carrier to be rated negatively in one or more categories of FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program. NTSB claims that although focused reviews save time, they contribute to FMCSA investigators failing to address carriers’ safety problems that were unrelated to what initiated the review.

The problems with the review process could be linked to four crashes that caused 25 fatalities and 83 injuries between December 2012 and June 2013, according to NTSB.