The accident scenario presented in the above video installment in Overdrive sister publication CCJ's "Preventable or not?" series shows trucker John Doe headed east on four-lane Pickwick Pike around dawn, the sun rising in a cloudless sky, light traffic.
Pickwick Pike dead-ended at Route 7, where Doe needed to turn left. To ensure room for the wide turn, Doe got into the right lane. When the light turned green, Doe eyeballed Route 7 traffic for any red-light runners before he cautiously began to execute the turn.
In the adjacent turn lane, a city school bus driver also started to turn left, but he didn’t turn sharply enough and moved partially into Doe’s lane. Doe stopped dead, sounding his horn, but to no avail -- the bus side-swiped Doe’s rig. Later, a warning letter from his safety director called it a preventable accident, yet Doe appealed the notion that he should have hung back and anticipated that the bus would encroach on his lane to the National Safety Council’s Accident Review Committee. How did the NSC rule? Find out in the video.
[Related: Preventable or not? When to use DataQs to request crash reviews in FMCSA's preventability program]
Owner-operators and other carriers with authority can now seek preventability reviews for an expanded set of crashes on their record through FMCSA's Crash Preventability Determination Program, including any crash for which video evidence shows the full sequence of the crash. The process for requesting a review takes place through the FMCSA's DataQs system. Crashes deemed nonpreventable after a review are excluded from the Crash Indicator category ratings in the CSA Safety Measurement System.
Hear plenty in the way of advice around the importance of having clearly nonpreventable crashes reviewed in the federal program in this early-2024 edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast. Find it also in the playlist of the top podcasts of 2024 below.
Find more information on the ins and outs of the DataQs system for challenging crashes and violations in the "Safety and Compliance" section of the Overdrive/ATBS-coproduced "Partners in Business" playbook for new and established owner-operators, a comprehensive guide to running a small trucking business. Click here to browse the PIB playbook in full, this year in a new online-content library format accessible from any device.
