Preventing Chicago Truck Accidents: FMCSA Launches Compliance Safety Accountability Program to Target High Risk Truckers
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is launching the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program. In an effort to improve road safety, and decrease the number of bus and truck collisions, bus and truck companies considered to be “high risk” will be targeted.
CSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) will analyze all safety-based violations and crash and inspections data to determine the road performance of a commercial motor carrier. SMS employs BASICs, which includes seven safety improvement categories, to examine a carrier’s crash risk and on-road performance. The categories include:
• Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service)
• Unsafe Driving
• Controlled Substances/Alcohol
• Driver Fitness
• Cargo-Related: Unsafe handling of hazardous materials or spilled, dropped, or shifting cargo.
• Crash Indicator: Refers to crash history, including severity and frequency
• Vehicle Maintenance
The old federal measurement system only examined four broad categories.
FMCSA believes that under this new program, officials will be more easily able to determine which carriers exhibit high-risk behavior and provide them with this data so that they can change unsafe practices ssooner rather than later. Interventions might include targeted roadside inspection, early warning letters, and concentrated compliance reviews. When a carrier does not take the proper corrective steps, FMCSA will impose civil penalties.
The CSA program will also attempt to give the public safety data in a format that is more user-friendly. The program has been tested in nine US states.
Our Chicago truck crash law firm welcomes the federal government's efforts to improve commercial truck and bus safety. We know how upsetting it can be to lose someone in an Illinois tractor-trailer crash that could have been avoided were it not for the carelessness or negligence of another party.
U.S. Safety Plan Targets High Risk Truckers, Claims Journal, December 15, 2010
Compliance, Safety, Accountability, FMCSA
Related Web Resource:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Contact our Chicago, Illinois semi-truck crash law firm today.
