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DOT Safety Regulation Update Fast-Fax™
Week of November 14, 2011
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has released figures that show that the number of fatal crashes decreased by almost a third between 2007 and 2009.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has released a remarkable spread of data showing a dramatic increase in safety for CMV operators that has occurred over the last decade.
A Decade of Improvements
Between 2007 and 2009, the number of crashes that involved a CMV and resulted in a fatality declined from 5,099 to 3,619; an incredible improvement over just a couple of years. In addition, the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes decrease from 1.32 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled to 1.12. That is a decline of more than 25%.
From 2000 to 2009 there was a significant improvement in safety. The fatal crash rate for large trucks has fallen 54.5%. Simply put, there are less than half the fatal crashes today than there were a decade ago.
What Has Caused This?
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what has caused this increase in safety and it is more than likely that, if you ask two different people in the industry you will get two different answers.
Certainly, there has been a substantial improvement in the quality and safety of trucks in the last decade. A fair amount of praise for the decrease in fatalities may belong with the truck manufacturers.
In addition, the focus towards a ‘safety culture’ among motor carriers has been prodigious. More and more carriers are simply not accepting drivers cutting corners or disobeying regulations. For a variety of reasons including CSA, the threat of lawsuits and, by no means last, the overall professionalism of motor carriers of all sizes, there has been a drive towards safety and compliance.
FMCSA would probably also point to new regulations that have been put in place over the last decade. There have been substantial rewrites of a number of major regulations including drug and alcohol testing and hours of service. The agency was founded in 2000 with the expressed intent to increase safety for motor carriers through regulation and enforcement.
Areas for Improvement
The picture wasn’t all rosy however; certain areas of the industry have some catching up to do. In the same time period, the rate of passenger carriers involved in fatal crashes only fell by 25%. Anyone who has been paying attention to the huge campaign against problematic bus companies that FMCSA has been running this year will probably not be surprised by this.
2010 and 2011
The 2010 figures will be published in March of 2012 and the 2011 figures in March of 2013. Fast-Fax will keep you up-to-date with this information when it becomes available.
Editor: Roxanne Swidrak, Vice President, Operations • 1-800-253-5506 • www.FoleyServices.com • Vol. 111, No. 714 • © Foley Carrier Services, LLC. 2011
