Crash Preventability

Make Sure Only The Relevant Crashes Are Counted

Crash preventability has long weighed heavy on the arguments against the effectiveness of the FMCSA’s CSA 2010 enforcement program.

Currently the FMCSA takes every crash that a trucking company is involved in into consideration when determining how safely a motor carrier is operating. Many believe that this is unfair, especially when this includes crashes that occurred through no fault of that company or driver.

For instance, say that your truck is parked legally and struck by another vehicle. The damage is significant enough to cause one of  the vehicles to have to be towed from the scene.

Chances are, this crash would negatively impact your safety scores with the federal government.

So, beginning August 1, 2017, the FMCSA will begin accepting Requests for Data Review (RDRs) into its Crash Preventability Demonstration Program through DataQs.

This represents the first steps towards the agency developing a standard process for only counting preventable crashes against motor carriers when judging their safety performance.

We believe that this is a major step forward in correcting one of the major flaws of the CSA program and applaud the FMCSA for implementing this process.

The Crash Preventability Demonstration Program is expected to last a minimum of 24 months and will only include crashes that occurred on or after June 1, 2017.

 

Crash Preventability Demonstration Program Meter

 

FMCSA’s safety programs use data from 3.5 million roadside inspections and 150,000 crashes each year to prioritize its enforcement resources on those motor carriers that pose the greatest safety risks on our Nation’s roads.

Studies show that crash involvement is a strong indicator of future crash risk, so having a clear and fair way of accounting for past preventable crashes is key.

The Crash Preventability Demonstration Program allows FMCSA to gather data to examine the feasibility, costs, and benefits of making crash preventability determinations on certain crash types.  They will use the information from the program to evaluate if these preventability determinations improve the Agency’s ability to identify the highest-risk motor carriers.

DataQs Fact Sheet

Click here for the DataQ System Factsheet.