Crash not your fault? FMCSA: Soon it will not hurt CSA score

From Transport Topics. Beginning in August, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to make permanent a demonstration program that allows truck crashes in which the driver was not at fault to be listed as “not preventable” in Compliance, Safety Accountability program scores. “Based on positive feedback from industry stakeholders, the department will propose to…

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From Transport Topics.

Beginning in August, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to make permanent a demonstration program that allows truck crashes in which the driver was not at fault to be listed as “not preventable” in Compliance, Safety Accountability program scores.

“Based on positive feedback from industry stakeholders, the department will propose to make this demonstration program permanent,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in a March 29 speech at the 2019 Mid-America Trucking Show here. Chao noted that DOT had launched its Crash Preventability Demonstration Project on Aug. 1, 2017 for a two-year run that will conclude at the end of July.

A spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told Transport Topics that the demonstration program can be made permanent without a formal rulemaking.

The program currently classifies a crash as “not preventable” on a carrier’s Safety Measurement System profile in instances where the carrier is not at fault. However, before that determination can be made, a carrier must submit a request for data review through the agency’s DataQs system, attaching documentation that establishes the carrier could not have avoided the crash.

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