Clinton Signs Truck Agency Bill

President Clinton signed legislation Dec. 10 placing oversight of truck and bus safety in a new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

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"This measure will get dangerous vehicles off our highways, save lives and help us reach our goal of reducing these fatalities by 50% over the next 10 years," Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said of the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act.

"It is the culmination of a 15-year effort to see motor carrier safety placed at the same level with the other modes of transportation," said American Trucking Associations President Walter B. McCormick Jr.

The law calls for the agency to be operational by Jan. 1. Until October, the Federal Highway Administration was responsible for truck safety. That changed with the passage of the Department of Transportation’s 2000 spending bill, which moved the Office of Motor Carrier Safety to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation.

The new law gives states an additional $225 million in Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funds between 2001 and 2003; establishes a program to certify private safety inspectors to conduct inspections of truck and bus companies; requires DOT to implement a series of improvements in truck safety regulations recommended by the department’s inspector general in April; and mandates that carriers granted new operating authority undergo a federal safety review within 18 months after beginning to operate.

The legislation also makes improvements to the commercial driver license program spurred by a March collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a truck driver operating with a temporary license because his CDL had been suspended. Drivers operating a truck without a valid CDL would face a six-month suspension. DOT would be given authority to suspend a CDL for up to 30 days if the driver is found to pose an imminent hazard. A longer suspension could be imposed following a hearing.