A new Department of Transportation pilot program, the Crash Preventability Demonstration Program, begins Aug. 1. Owner-operators will be able to dispute certain crashes that were ruled preventable and could have the ruling changed with notification of such posted on Safety Measurement Systemโs public display.
Crashes eligible for review must have occurred on or after June 1, 2017. The Crash Preventability Demonstration Program will allow carriers to send requests for data reviews to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to evaluate the preventability of certain crashes. RDRs can be made through the existing DataQs data correction system.
If a preventable crash ruling is overturned to โNot Preventable,โ law enforcement will be able to see a carriersโ measures and percentiles both with and without the crash, along with a notation reading โFMCSA reviewed the crash and determined it was not preventable.โ FMCSA can also rule the crash โPreventableโ or โUndecidedโ and reflect this on SMS.
The FMCSA says the Crash Preventability Demonstration Program allows
the agency to gather data to examine the feasibility, costs, and
benefits of making crash preventability determinations on
eligible crashes.
FMCSA will keep the demonstration program open for a minimum of two years.
Through the program, FMCSA will accept the following eight crash types for review:
โข When a truck was struck by a driver under the influence or a related offence
โข When a truck was struck by a motorist driving in the wrong direction
โข When a truck was hit in the rear
โข When a truck was hit while legally stopped or parked
โข When a pedestrian or car drives in front of a truck in an attempt to commit suicide by truck
โข When a truck sustains disabling damage after hitting an animal in the road
โข When a crash is caused by an infrastructure failure or falling trees, rocks or other debris
โข When a truck is hit by cargo or equipment from another vehicle
