ATA Says FMCSA Crash Accountability Report Comes Up Short
Agency continues to penalize drivers & carriers for being in the wrong place at the wrong time
ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the American Trucking Associations expressed its disappointment that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration continued its efforts to delay appropriate action on the important issue of crash accountability in its CSA program.
"Numerous times over the past five years, ATA has respectfully requested FMCSA to screen out crashes from CSA where it is plainly evident the professional truck driver and motor carrier were not at fault," said ATA Executive Vice President Dave Osiecki. "Instances where a truck is rear ended by a drunk driver, or hit head on by a motorist traveling in the wrong direction on the interstate, or as happened just Monday when a truck was struck by a collapsing bridge are clearly not the fault of the professional driver and certainly should not be used to target his or her carrier for potentially intrusive government oversight."
FMCSA uses overall crash history as one of several data points in its Compliance, Safety, Accountability safety monitoring system. ATA has repeatedly (http://www.trucking.org/article.aspx?uid=613c62f7-9f87-498d-9875-ec82c2b7a2db) called (http://www.trucking.org/article.aspx?uid=55206031-369b-4094-9e8e-b98c17f8465d) for improvements to CSA, particularly in the area of crash accountability, where the agency contends that just being involved in a crash is an indicator a carrier may not be safe.
"It is not lost on the trucking industry that the word 'Accountability' is in the title of CSA, yet FMCSA continues to ignore crash accountability," said Osiecki.
"We want to be fairly judged and not be penalized by crashes our professional drivers could not reasonably avoid," said ATA Chairman Duane Long, chairman of Longistics, Raleigh, N.C. "It's not only a fairness issue; it's a good government oversight approach. We continue to trust FMCSA might eventually arrive at this conclusion."
American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward
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SOURCE American Trucking Associations
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