It was 2 a.m., and truck driver John Doe was pulling in rainy conditions on a tight two-lane highway bounded by concrete barriers on either side. Coming around a tight curve, an oncoming truck suddenly blinded Doe with high-beam headlights, also swerving into his lane. Doe did what most anybody would, and turned to the shoulder to miss the oncoming rig.
Yet that wasn't the end of the events of that early morning. What little shoulder existed turned out to be mush and caused him to lose full control of his truck, whereupon he crashed into the concrete barrier.
The story is the among the latest in Overdrive sister publication CCJ's "Preventable or Not?" video series, detailing crash preventability scenarios that have been analyzed by the National Safety Council's accident review committee. As in other cases featured in the CCJ series, Doe's accident was judged to be preventable by his carrier's safety director, but he appealed to the NSC for the final determination. Watch the video above to find out where the committee landed.
Did they make the right call?
Preventability as a standard, as we've written before, stands to hold more import for motor carriers of all shapes and sizes as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration continues the Crash Preventability Determination Program. Changes proposed in 2023 to the crash types that can be reviewed in the program should offer expanded possibility for requesting determinations for crashes like Doe's, particularly when video evidence clearly demonstrates the circumstances of the crash. Under the terms of the CPDP, carriers involved in a variety of crashes can use FMCSA's DataQs system to request a preventability review. If deemed "nonpreventable," the crash is then excluded from the carrier's scores in the CSA Safety Measurement System's crash category.
Hear more in the way of advice around the importance of having clearly nonpreventable crashes reviewed in this early-2024 edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast:
