According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), more than 30,000 Americans are killed each year in automobile accidents. In fact, such accidents are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 5-34. Approximately nine percent of those accidents involve commercial trucks, according to trucking.net.
What is the FMCSA Strategic Plan?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) was formed by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in January 2000, and charged with reducing crashes, injuries and fatalities involving commercial motor vehicles. Since its creation, the rate of US traffic fatalities involving commercial vehicles has fallen to the lowest level since 1975, the year the DOT began tracking data.
In an effort to make America’s highways even safer and further decrease truck accidents, the FMCSA, has drafted a three-part, five-year strategic plan. The details of this plan, titled “ Raising the Bar,” were released earlier this summer.
The FMCSA plan seeks to impose more stringent requirements for entering the commercial motor vehicle industry, sets higher standards to continue in the industry, and seeks to eliminate high-risk carriers and drivers from the roads.
Trucking Industry Response
Still, many industry organizations feel that the FMCSA plan doesn’t go far enough. While lauding the association’s efforts, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) would like to see such a plan address passenger motorists as well as commercial carriers. By only focusing on just one side of the issue, the ATA feels the plan fails to address the cause of up to 70 percent of truck accidents, those caused by motorists in passenger vehicles.
Source: FMCSA safety plan deemphasizes cars: ATA