WASHINGTON — States need more funding for the enforcement of new federal truck safety regulations and greater flexibility in how they can spend the money, the head of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance told a House panel examining the effectiveness of federally funded highway safety programs.
“It is critical that Congress and [the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration] ensure that, as new programs are created and new responsibilities are assigned, funding is provided to the states, avoiding any unfunded mandates,” said New York State Police Sgt. Thomas Fuller, president of CVSA, which represents the state police agencies.
“Otherwise, funds are spread thinly across programs, reducing effectiveness across the board,” Fuller said at the Jan. 28 hearing of the House highways and transit subcommitttee.
Federal support for truck safety enforcement has produced demonstrable safety improvement, he said. From 2001 to 2010, the number of registered large trucks and buses grew 35%, from just over 8.6 million to 11.6 million, Fuller told the House panel.
“Despite this increase, the number of fatalities due to crashes involving large trucks and buses has gone down 27%,” he said. “The number of CMV crash-related injuries also decreased over that time frame by 30%.”
CVSA asked the committee to consider increasing the basic Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program grant match from the current 80% federal money to 90%.
“At the very least, moderate increases in funding levels are necessary to keep pace with inflation, as stagnant funding levels result in decreased buying power year to year,” the CVSA testimony said.
Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), the subcommitte’s chairman, said in his opening statement for the hearing that he wanted to explore what approaches are more effective and innovative in terms of federal highway safety grants.
