ATRI Study Looks at CSA Scores, Crash Risk

An American Transportation Research Institute study of 471,000 motor carriers’ Compliance, Safety, Accountability data found that CSA percentile scores in two of five categories are “defective” in predicting crash risk.

The study, released Monday, also found that Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “alerts” to carriers do not consistently identify the riskiest carriers within all five safety categories that are open to public view.

CSA currently has seven Behavior Analysis & Safety Improvement Categories, or BASICs.

“The analysis showed with high levels of confidence that BASIC scores are positively related to crashes in the Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving and Vehicle Maintenance BASICs, with the strongest relationship found for Unsafe Driving,” the study said.

“Meanwhile, ATRI found a negative relationship between the other two BASICs and crash involvement. That is, in the Driver Fitness and Controlled Substances and Alcohol BASICs, higher (i.e. worse) scores are associated with lower crash risks.”