FMCSA to exclude unpreventable crashes in fleet safety calculations

The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration announced the start of the Crash Preventability Determination Program to more accurately classify the data surrounding commercial vehicle crashes. If a truck was involved in a crash deemed “not preventable” on or after Aug. 1, 2019, that incident may be reviewed and potentially stricken from the carrier’s Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) measure in the Safety Measurement System.

The SMS provides data to identify fleets in need of a safety intervention via a prioritization algorithm. Crashes also tarnish a driver’s hirability and they are noted on their pre-employment screenings. Through the revised program, fleets and drivers will not be penalized for situations out of their control.

Fleets or drivers who want crashes considered/re-evalutaed may submit Request for Data Review (RDR) on the FMCSA’s DataQs website. This RDR should include the police accident report along with any supporting documents such as photos or dash cam videos.

Eligibility requirements may be found here.

The 10 types of crash events include:

• Truck struck in or around the rear
• Other vehicle that initiated crash was traveling in the wrong direction or made an illegal turn
• Truck hit while legally stopped or parked
• Offending vehicle did not stop/slow down in traffic or at traffic light or sign
• Other driver was intoxicated/under the influence
• Other driver had medical event, fell asleep or was distracted
• Struck by loose cargo, equipment or roadside debris or trees, or crashed due to infrastructure failure
  
• Hit an animal
• Hit a person in the act of committing/attempting suicide
• Rare or unusual crash, such as a skydiver dropping onto truck