Hersman Disturbed by Cuts in Collection of Crash Data

This story appears in the Feb. 10 print edition of Transport Topics.

A loss of research data is “disturbing” and will hamper the ability of federal agencies to effectively regulate truck safety, said Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

“You are losing data sources,” Hersman said, referring to recent program cuts by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and other modal agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation because of what she termed “an ever-tightening budgetary noose” around all federal programs and also some state agencies.

Speaking to editors and reporters for Transport Topics on Feb. 4, Hersman said data programs often are the first to be cut because it’s hard for people to see value in them.

“They’re not seeing an automatic return on investment or something being built,” she said. “What that leads to is a lack of good information to make decisions about where you need to target activities in the future, whether it is enforcement or roadway improvements and design and other things.”

NTSB is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident and significant accidents in other modes of transportation. It determines the probable cause of the accidents and issues safety recommendations.

One data program to become a casualty was run by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Its researchers analyzed accident reports to extract details about the type of vehicles involved and human factors that contributed to crashes. DOT cut off funds for the Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) program in 2012, and efforts by the school to secure alternative funding have not succeeded.

FMCSA officials said the agency will continue to use data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to conduct research, which may include an update of the 2003 Large Truck Crash Causation Study. The Federal Highway Administration also is conducting a new study on truck size and weight.

American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said current data sources do not provide a good breakdown of responsibility for accidents nor do they differentiate between truly large over-the-road tractor-trailers and smaller vehicles that operate in urban areas.

“It makes it hard to know if policies are working or not,” he said.

Hersman agreed. Her agency recently studied crashes involving single-unit trucks that resulted in deaths and injuries. Compared with crashes involving tractor-trailers, the study found fewer fatalities but more serious injuries.

The analysis, which used a variety of data sources — TIFA, FARS and hospital records — resulted in numerous recommendations, including one requiring underride protection systems for new vehicles and better conspicuity treatments on the sides and rears of single-unit trucks.

Hersman said the agency also is looking into whether additional training for drivers of single-unit trucks is warranted. NTSB also encouraged truck makers to adopt technology, such as electronic stability control and collision warning systems, that is commonly used on over-the-road tractor-trailers.

While budget constraints will force some agencies to shed programs, Hersman said it would be “folly” to eliminate programs that provide basic data for safety research.

“Once they’re gone, they’re going to be gone,” she said. “We’re not going to have anything to fall back on.”

And once you stop collecting data, Hersman said, you also lose the university “infrastructure” and expertise needed to analyze information.

“Once you destroy that network, it’s going to be really hard to restart it again,” she said.

The number of fatal crashes involving large trucks and buses is on the rise after falling steadily for many years.

In 2012, there were 3,702 fatal crashes involving large trucks and buses, a 3% increase from 3,593 in 2011 and a 5.4% increase from the 3,512 crashes reported in 2010, according to FMCSA.

The fatality rate, which measures the number of fatalities against total miles traveled by all vehicles, also has risen 16% to 0.141 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2012 from a low of 0.122 per 100 million miles in 2009. Since 2005, however, the fatality rate has fallen by 24%.

Of particular concern to NTSB, Hersman said, is a jump in fatalities involving truck and bus occupants. There were 736 deaths in 2012, a 5.9% increase from the 695 deaths in 2011; and that death toll was 21.1% higher than the 574 deaths recorded in 2010.