FMCSA Extends Comment Period on Crash Weighting

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it will accept comments for an additional month on its crash-weighting analysis published in January.

The agency’s statement was posted in the Federal Register on Feb. 19 and said the comment period runs through March 25, and extension from the Feb. 23 deadline. Comments can be submitted online at www.regulations.gov.

The study said there is no easy, reliable method assessing blame in a traffic accident. That has been an important issue for trucking in that industry leaders do not want all truck-involved accidents included in safety scores, just those where the truck or its driver is at fault.

The current practice for FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program is to include any significant accident in CSA scoring.

The January analysis said there often  are discrepancies among accident reports, making it difficult to come to solid judgments quickly and consistently when updating CSA scores.