Safety

Steve Owings, president of Road Safe America, has been named chairman of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, which advises federal officials on truck and bus safety issues.

Truck-involved highway fatalities inched up 1.9% to 3,757 in 2011 from 3,686 the year before, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported last week.

Cameras set up to catch stoplight violators in New Jersey have helped cut in half the number of accidents, a new report shows.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Monday that, effective immediately, it has activated previously announced changes to its Safety Measurement System ratings program, including adoption of its controversial proposal to step up hazardous materials compliance and elimination of a perceived enforcement bias against flatbed carriers.

With the dust settling from last month’s elections — and the voters returning to Washington a still-divided government — it is going to be incumbent upon our leaders to find areas of broad agreement to build upon if we are going to move forward as a nation.

Federal officials have shut down C&D Transportation Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill., calling it an “imminent hazard to public safety” and saying the carrier ignored a previous shutdown order.

I just heard about the impending pilot shortage and the new regulatory requirement for 1,500 hours to qualify — five times the existing requirement.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has taken a good step in its drive to control “reincarnated carriers,” troubled companies that essentially seek to shed their safety and compliance woes by repainting the company name on their vehicles.