In early May 2020, FMCSA launched its new, and permanent, CSA-related crash preventability determination program, and its first “Quarterly Statistics” report illustrates two important things: (1) the pent-up trucking industry demand for the program; and (2) the strong need for the program. The trucking industry demand for the program is clear from the following numbers. Between May 6, 2020 (start of the program) and June 26, 2020 (end of FMCSA’s quarterly reporting period):
- 4,700 DOT recordable crashes were submitted for a preventability review;
- 1,374 unique carriers submitted these crashes; and,
- 2% of the crashes were submitted by trucking companies (note: the other 0.8% of crashes (28 crashes in total) were submitted by motorcoach companies.
The strong need for the program, and the preventability determinations that flow from it, is illustrated by these data points:
- 1,086 crashes (of the 4,700 submitted thus far) have been evaluated and reported on;
- 96% of these 1,086 preventability determinations were found to be “Not Preventable“
- 2.6% of these crash determinations were listed as “Undecided”; and,
- Only 1.4% of these determinations were found to be “Preventable”
These findings make clear to STC that FMCSA’s new program is working, it’s greatly needed, and the trucking industry’s 10-year push for it (since 2010 when the CSA program launch) was both justified and worth the sustained effort.