Editorial: FMCSA’s Safety Blunder

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has let the trucking industry down by failing to modify the way it assigns fault in truck-related crashes.

The agency has apparently fallen victim to complaints from various interest groups and decided not to follow through on its promise to swiftly fix an obviously flawed portion of its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

Currently, FMCSA does little in its CSA program to draw any distinction between a trucker who actually causes a crash through poor driving and a driver whose rig is smashed by the improper and obvious actions of others.

When various trucking interests brought this to FMCSA’s attention, Administrator Anne Ferro promised speedy action to remedy it. But we’ve learned recently that she’s changed her mind.

At a closed-door meeting a few weeks back, Ferro said she has decided to delay any changes, after these interest groups complained that they weren’t being given enough of an opportunity to comment on any modifications to the program.

It’s hard to understand how much outside comment is needed to acknowledge that a truck driver who is legally parked and is run into by an out-of-control car driver is not at fault. Or the trucker  who is involved in a head-on collision with an automobile driver going the wrong way on a divided highway is not at fault.

What we seem to be dealing with here is a political hot potato, where FMCSA and Ferro appear unwilling to cross swords with interest groups that have continued to criticize the agency’s actions and are quick to move their complaints into the federal court system.

While American Trucking Associations continues to support CSA’s objectives to improve safety on our nation’s roads, we must object to this  unnecessary delay in fixing an obvious flaw in the program.

John Conley, president of National Tank Truck Carriers, said recently that he was “surprised and disappointed” by FMCSA’s action. And, he added, “I truly believe that the credibility of the agency will, and should, take a hit” because of it.

And a spokesman for a group we don’t always see eye-to-eye with — the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association — put it more bluntly, saying the delay was an “outrageous kowtowing to safety advocacy groups.”

Sorry to say, but we agree with both officials.