Ferro Declares CSA a ‘Success,’ Citing 5% Dip in Fatal Crashes

This story appears in the Aug. 13 print edition of Transport Topics.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has declared the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program a “success” because fatalities in truck- and bus-related crashes fell nearly 5% in 2011.

Speaking here to the PeopleNet User Conference on Aug. 6, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro’s comment gave the first indication about trucking’s safety performance last year.

The year-over-year decline was significant, she said, because the CSA program wasn’t in effect for most of 2010. The agency rolled out its Safety Measurement System, or SMS — which assesses driver and equipment safety using factors such as hours-of-service compliance — in December 2010.

The 5% decline estimate is based on preliminary 2011 crash data being compared with 2010 data, Ferro said.

Her comment was the latest indication of improving industry safety, which included an all-time best performance in 2009 before a slight deterioration last year.

“This [crash reduction] is a very solid demonstration of success in our efforts,” Ferro said. “CSA is a strong enforcement program. The good news is that CSA is working. We are seeing the results from the process change we are all undertaking.”

Ferro also said there was an 8% reduction in the number of truck and bus violations detected by state inspectors. Both statistics she cited were based on the FMCSA’s own crash information reporting system.

The CSA program, Ferro said, is now in the evaluation stage of the program’s effectiveness, including the expected release later this month of a final rule that outlines changes to the program.

The agency in March announced proposed changes, such as creating a separate category within the SMS for hazardous materials enforcement.

Ferro said the changes will reflect input from the trucking industry without specifying how the final rule would read.

A longer-term question, as CSA evolves, is the issue of how to assess a trucker’s accountability in crashes, a process Ferro described as “a strong and intense topic.”

The crash accountability issue won’t be part of the program changes to be announced this month, she said, targeting a resolution of the issue in the next year.

The challenge, she said, is to find an effective method to separate the crashes in which the trucker is fault from those that were caused by other motorists.

Trade groups such as American Trucking Associations have been pressing for disclosure of the agency’s current methodology for determining crash accountability, as well as urging a new approach to determining whether a trucker is at fault in a crash.

While FMCSA hasn’t disclosed how it determines crash accountability using the SMS, Ferro insisted, “Past crash history is the strongest predictor of future crash likelihood.”

The third and final CSA step will be the publication of a formal safety fitness determination for carriers to replace the agency’s former system, known as Safe-

Stat. The determination, using SMS data, is designed to rate each carrier’s safety performance.

Ferro said the safety fitness determination proposal is targeted for release next summer. As with other federal rules proposals, there will be a comment period followed by agency evaluation.

During her comments, Ferro also provided an update on other regulatory issues.

She said FMCSA is working on new procedures to prevent the use of electronic onboard recorders from harassing drivers, after the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association mounted a successful court challenge an earlier rule that required the devices for nearly all carriers.

“We have pulled the challenged rule off the books. We’ve gone back to the drawing board on how to prohibit harassment.”

She targeted the first quarter of 2013 as the goal for issuing a new EOBR proposal.

FMCSA also plans to propose a method for creating a nationwide drug-and-alcohol information clearinghouse by the end of the year. That move will enable fleets to determine whether a driver has tested positive for prohibited drug or alcohol use or has refused to take such a test.

“You don’t always have the tools you need to keep an unsafe driver out from behind the wheel. A drug-and-alcohol clearinghouse is one such tool,” Ferro said.

She encouraged companies to contact motor vehicle agencies for driver data in states where that information is disclosed now and said the agency will establish rules for disclosure as required by the recent federal transport appropriations legislation signed into law.