FMCSA says it’s researching crash weighting in CSA scores

Updated Sep 12, 2013

truck crashThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is studying the feasibility of incorporating crash accountability into Compliance, Safety, Accountability scores and plans to release its Crash Weighting Research Plan sometime this year, the agency says. 

Crash accountability has been a point of contingency for industry stakeholders, as FMCSA currently counts all crashes against carriers, even ones that are not the fault of the carrier or driver. 

The agency’s study examines whether police reports have the quality and consistency to support some kind of crash weighting determination. The agency says it will cost somewhere between $2 to $3 million to analyze the 100,000 crash reports it receives each year. 

FMCSA has not unveiled a timeline or subsequent steps for post-release of its research plan, but it is working with the Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center to develop a tool to establish some crash accountability measure and how it should affect carrier’s Safety Measurement System scores in the CSA system. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee has directed the agency to work with the Volpe Center and requested the research plan be completed by Sept. 30. 

The committee set a Dec. 1, 2014, deadline for the Government Accountability Office audit of agency progress with the program. The GAO examination includes gauging CSA’s effectiveness in identifying the highest risk carrier sand how program interventions improve carrier safety, according to a June 27 committee report.