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DOT forms freight grant working group

April 11, 2016
The Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) panel will target funds to state-level truck and bus safety enforcement efforts.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) officially formed the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) formula working group last week

Mandated by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation or “FAST” Act passed in December, the group is tasked with analyzing the requirements and factors for establishing a new “allocation formula” for state-level truck and bus safety enforcement efforts that include: compliance investigations, roadside inspections, new entrant audits, and traffic enforcement activities.

The FAST Act required the DOT establish a MCSAP working group within 180 days of enactment of the FAST Act and the group must provide its recommendations no later than one year from the date of its establishment.  

Some 15 individuals, over half from state safety agencies, make up this new working group, DOT noted:

  • Lt. Donald Bridge, Jr., Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, MCSAP Coordinator, Commercial Vehicle Safety Division
  • Lt. Thomas Fitzgerald, Massachusetts State Patrol, Commanding Officer, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section
  • Michelle Lopez, Colorado State Patrol, MCSAP Grants Administrator
  • Alan Martin, Ohio Public Utilities Commission, Deputy Director
  • Lt. Stephen Brent Moore, Georgia Department of Public Safety, Special Operations Coordinator, Motor Carrier Compliance Division
  • Captain Brian Preston, Arizona Department of Public Safety
  • John Smoot, Kentucky State Police, MCSAP/Federal Training Coordinator
  • Col. Leroy Taylor, South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Deputy Director
  • Adrienne Gildea, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, Deputy Executive Director
  • Stephen Owings, Road Safe America, President and Co-Founder

Representatives from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) serving on this panel include:

  • Nancy Baugher, FMCSA, Grants Management Officer
  • Caitlin Cullitan, FMCSA, Attorney-Advisor
  • Thomas Liberatore, FMCSA, Chief, State Programs Division
  • Courtney Stevenson, FMCSA, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Field Operations
  • Dan Meyer, FMCSA, Division Administrator, Illinois Division.
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