A study that evaluates both the impact of implementing crash fault weighting into CSA scores and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ability to implement such a system is still being reviewed by the agency and peers prior to its release, said an FMCSA official this week.
Tom Kelly, a field officer for the FMCSA, gave an update on some small changes in the works for agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program March 28 at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky.
Though he didn’t say when the crash weighting report would be released, Kelly did say the agency will announce its next potential steps regarding crash accountability when the report is released.
The report seeks to answer three questions, Kelly said:
- Do police accident reports provide consistent, efficient and reliable information to support crash weighting determinations?
- Will the process make CSA a stronger predictor of future crash risk, and how might it be weighted in CSA’s Safety Measurement System?
- How would FMCSA manage the process for making crash weighting determinations and how would the agency implement public input?
- He didn’t give any specifics as to what they agency has found in the report so far.
Kelly also gave an update on the progress of two rulemakings underway regarding CSA, saying for both CSA’s new Safety Measurement System website proposal and its proposed changes to the DataQs system, the agency is reviewing and considering public comment before crafting final rules for both.
Click here to read more about the proposed website changes from prior Overdrive coverage. The website changes are designed to give a more clear picture of a carrier’s or driver’s SMS percentile rankings in the BASICs by more prominently displaying those that better correlate with crash risk, among other changes.
Click here to read more about the proposed DataQs changes from prior Overdrive coverage. The rule is an attempt by the agency to improve the quality of its data and make data more uniform, Kelly said.
The rule will allow CSA and its corresponding Pre-Employment Screening Program to take into account any adjudication that occurs after a citation is issued, FMCSA says. If a driver or carrier gets the citation dismissed or is found “not guilty,” the agency says it will then remove the violation from the systems after a DataQs challenge is made.
