FMCSA to Restrict Access to Some Data in SafeStat
img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it planned to restrict access to some data in its SafeStat system in response to a report the Department of Transportation’s internal watchdog published earlier this year.
The safety agency also said it would make changes in the way it collects and analyzes safety data as part of its response to the Feb. 13 report by the DOT’s Inspector General, who criticized FMCSA’s SafeStat program for problems with the timeliness and accuracy of those data.
FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg announced the changes in an op-ed article in Transport Topics.
Because of the data problems, the inspector general recommended they be used internally only until those problems were fixed.
SafeStat is an online data analysis program FMCSA uses as the basis for initiating truck and bus fleet compliance audits.
FMCSA spokesman David Longo expanded on FMCSA’s plans for upgrading or improving its data collection procedures to comply with some of the OIG’s recommendations.
“FMCSA shares the OIG’s concern for improved data quality,” Longo said. “In fact, the agency has already implemented, or is in the process of implementing, a number of improvements, which address the recommendations outlined in the report.”
Among the changes to SafeStat Longo highlighted were: an effort to require states, when they apply for enforcement funding, to describe their data collection process and strategies for improving it; expansion of the Commercial Vehicle Analysis Reporting System; and the upcoming publication of a “data quality map on our Web site to help states judge their current data quality.”
FMCSA planned to judge data quality on its timeliness, completeness and accuracy of inspection and crash information, Longo said.
In addition, Longo said FMCSA had implemented an electronic system for filing carriers to comment on the way their safety data have been recorded.
With the new system, although FMCSA would remove the SafeStat scores from its Web site, “carriers will be able to access their own accident SEA and overall SafeStat scores through their standard company safety profiles, sustaining their ability to conduct self-assessments of their safety performance,” Longo said.
Raw crash data would remain on the agency’s Web site, he said.
In addition to the OIG’s report, Longo said FMCSA felt it necessary to remove the score data from the site until the quality issues were resolved, because “interested parties, including shippers, insurance underwriters and investors [were using] this information to determine a carrier’s reliability and assess its risk level.”
While the score data will no longer be available to the public, the agency will continue using the data to initiate fleet compliance audits, Longo said.
“FMCSA will continue to use the scores internally to identify carriers posing the greatest potential safety risk,” he said. “Use of this data helps FMCSA and states identify carriers as candidates for compliance reviews. FMCSA believes it important that the OIG found SafeStat generally calculated scores consistent with its design, and a 1998 study supported the model’s validity.”
This article appears in the May 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
