NTSB Urges Longer Review of New Drivers’ Histories

Motor carriers should be required to review 10 years of driving records for each new driver they hire, the National Transportation Safety Board said last week, citing its investigation of a 2011 bus crash that killed 15 people.

At its June 5 meeting, the board also recommended that the federal government require “advanced” speed limiters that would restrict heavy vehicles based on the posted speed limit and that regulators study whether they should mandate systems that monitor commercial driver behavior and record unsafe actions.

“We’ve learned from this accident, again, it’s imperative to have drivers with a safe driving history and to make sure that drivers are alert,” NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said after the board voted to issue the recommendations.

“A safe, well-rested driver is a key safety factor and can be, as we’ve seen too many times, the crucial difference between an uneventful trip and a tragic one,” Hersman said.

On the morning of March 12, 2011, a bus operated by World Wide Tours of Greater New York rolled over on Interstate 95 in New York City, according to NTSB. It hit a sign post, which sheered off the bus’s roof, killing 15 passengers and severely injuring seven more.

Ophadell Williams, the bus driver, had claimed that he was sideswiped by a truck, but there has been widespread speculation that he fell asleep at the wheel.

NTSB found no evidence to support his claim and that he had had little sleep in the days before the crash. NTSB investigators found that Williams had multiple violations and suspensions on his driving records.

But because Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations require employers to review only three years of driving history when they hire drivers, World Wide Tours saw no violations in Williams’ records when he applied in 2010.

The three-year limit “has the potential for masking a driver’s poor driving history,” Gary Van Etten, an NTSB investigator, told the board.

FMCSA will review NTSB’s recommendations, Administrator Anne Ferro said through a spokeswoman.

Rob Abbott, vice president of safety policy for American Trucking Associations, said he doubted the additional seven years of driving records would help carriers make better hiring decisions.

“While you could become aware of violations that are more than three years old, it could speak to a pattern that’s confirmed by recent behavior,” he said, adding that the most recent three years would be sufficient in that case.

Alternatively, recent records could show that a driver’s behavior improved from the previous seven years, Abbott said. “Behavior that occurred more than three years ago may or may not be relevant,” he said.

Older driving records also could be costly to obtain and take much more time, especially if the driver was licensed in different states.

“The question is, what’s the benefit for the investment?” Abbott asked.

Investigators found that Williams was driving at least 64 mph when the bus hit the sign post, but the highway’s speed limit was 50 mph. A speed limiter restricted the bus to 78 mph as a company policy, so NTSB said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should require heavy vehicles to have speed limiters that react to the posted speed limit.

Such “advanced” speed limiters either use vehicle location data matched to a database of posted speed limits, or the devices actually can read the speed limit signs, said Jana Price, an NTSB specialist.

“On that March morning, an advanced heavy vehicle speed limiter could have provided some protection against the reckless operation of the motor coach,” Hersman said.

The technology is commercially available in Sweden and Australia and is under development in the United States, she said.

“Advanced speed limiting technologies have the potential to reduce speed-related accidents and incident severity,” Price said.

In January 2011, NHTSA said it would consider mandating speed limiters for all heavy vehicles (1-10-11, p. 1). Lynda Tran, a NHTSA spokeswoman, said the agency is considering releasing a proposal in 2012, but such “static” speed limiters would be permanently set to one speed, such as the 65 mph American Trucking Associations favors.

Tran said NHTSA would consider NTSB’s speed-limiter recommendation. “The technology for advanced speed limiters merits further study, and NHTSA will consider all available data and information as it moves forward with its rulemaking activities,” she said.

NTSB also recommended that FMCSA consider whether onboard monitoring systems, which warn drivers and their employers of a wide range of unsafe behavior, should be mandated. The agency is currently studying the effectiveness of such systems, Price said.

An onboard monitoring system measures unsafe driving behaviors such as speed or lane departures, then warns the driver and his employer for future training or discussion. It could have prevented the March 2011 crash by curbing the behavior that caused it, Price said.