ATA Renews Call for Crash Accountability from FMCSA

American Trucking Associations called on federal officials to establish a process to remove crash statistics from motor carriers’ records in cases where it has been evident that the carrier was not to blame.

ATA asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to make the changes to carrier ratings under FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

“Just last month, police gave chase to a driver of a stolen car who crossed a grassy median and struck a truck head-on,” said ATA President Bill Graves.

 “It is clearly inappropriate for FMCSA to use these types of crashes to prioritize trucking companies for future government intervention, especially when responsibility for the crash is so obvious,” he said in a statement.

Fatal crashes currently are listed on a carrier’s safety profile but do not contain information on whether the carrier was at fault in the crash.

However, a carrier’s percentile score in the Crash BASIC category — one of the seven CSA safety ratings — remains private.