IT PAYS TO BE SAFE

No. 33, August, 2010
Crash and Incident Experiences

This is the seventh of a seven-part series on the upcoming rollout of the Comprehensive Safety Analysis, known as CSA 2010 and the 7 BASIC (Behavioral Analysis Safety Improvement Categories) categories that drivers and companies will be judged by.

Published reports have indicated that up to 175,000 drivers will be eliminated through the application of the statistical analysis derived from review of the 7 "BASICS."

Our seventh category pertains to crash and incident experiences, which are subject to the review by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They will be looking for a history or pattern of high crash involvement, including frequency and severity of accidents. The FMCSA will be looking specifically to driver's logged miles versus the number of accidents they have been involved in.

The FMCSA will also be looking to law enforcement crash reports and the information contained therein. Did the officer think the driver was fatigued? Or was the driver over on hours? Each of these reports will now play a part in the determination of the company and rating the driver's scored points total. The FMCSA will also look to crash reports reported by the carrier that are discovered in on-site investigations or audits.

A driver being involved in accidents when over on hours and determined by law enforcement to be fatigued will be considered one of the most highly weighted areas in the comprehensive safety analysis being completed by the government.

The rollout of CSA 2010 will not change the safety requirements drivers have had for a number of years; rather, the drivers themselves will now be subjected to being judged as to safety and fitness and not simply the trucking company! Too many points totaled can and will make drivers unemployable by commercial companies.