Safety

Purchasers of Qualcomm Inc.’s OmniTracs system in Washington state dodged a tax hit following a March 10 decision about the legal classification of that system by the Washington Supreme Court.

Several truck makers and industry suppliers said their facilities sustained some damage from the March 11 earthquake in Japan, but they were not expecting it to result in significant supply disruptions to North America.

American Trucking Associations has petitioned federal regulators to issue a new rule to clarify that hazardous material packages should normally be inspected at the point of loading or unloading, and not during roadside inspections.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said a new federal rule will expand the enforcement authority of federal regulators to conduct “enhanced inspections” and investigations of packaged hazardous materials.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Transportation Security Administration have conducted several dozen overlapping fleet inspections, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report about wasteful and duplicative federal programs.

An impending Department of Transportation rule will expand enforcement authority of federal regulators to conduct “enhanced inspections” and investigations of packaged hazardous materials.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has cast a spotlight on the current federal standard for truck underride guards, which it says is woefully inadequate.

The federal standard for underride guards on trucks and trailers is inadequate and should be upgraded to protect the drivers of vehicles that crash into the rear of trucks, an insurance safety advocacy group said last week.

States are equipping roadside inspectors with carrier-specific information that could lead to more targeted inspections under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new Compli­ance, Safety, Ac­countability program.

Crash-test analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that underride guards on tractor-trailers can fail even in relatively low-speed crashes, and the group is petitioning the federal government to require stronger guards that will remain in place during a crash and to mandate guards for more big rigs and trailers.