NTSB Calls Out FMCSA For Failing to Do Their Job

16 Dec NTSB Calls Out FMCSA For Failing to Do Their Job

Posted at 22:04h in BLOG, VEHICLE ACCIDENTS by Jeff Rasansky 0 Comments

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The National Transportation Safe Board (NTSB) is questioning the competence of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in light of four recent accidents which have resulted in 25 wrongful deaths and 83 injuries. The investigation also revealed that there were safety issues and red flags which were present before the accidents occurred, and the FMCSA either overlooked the flags or failed to act upon them.

Investigative Overview

During the investigation, the NTSB discovered in many cases that the FMSCA had already flagged those companies that had violations, yet allowed them to continue operating without closely monitoring them–until there were deadly crashes that forced them to take action. In spite of the FMCSA’s claim they are shutting down more carriers for unsafe practices, the NTSB’s investigations raised a number of issues concerning the thoroughness and quality of the agency’s compliance reviews, especially their tendency to focus on only a narrow portion of the entire operation of an individual carrier.

The American Trucking Associations believe the findings by NTSB clearly show the need for the FMCSA to improve the CSA program in order to more efficiently and effectively target high-risk carriers. The ATA believes there should be a mandate for use of electronic logs.

Four Fatal Crashes

The four crashes the NTSB investigated that raised flags are as follows (includes actions the FMCSA took):

Bus crash in Pendleton, Oregon killed nine people and injured 37. Investigation by the NTSB discovered the driver was operating over the 70 hours allowable and with a tire not properly rated for operation on the highway. The carrier had previous service hours violations. In spite of previous issues with safety, the FMCSA gave the carrier a satisfactory rating a little more than a year before the accident. At that time it was placed on “out of service” status for failing to comply with regulations.

In February 2013 a bus crash killed seven people and injured several dozen more. According to the NTSB all six of the bus’s brakes were defective under guidelines of the North American Standard Inspection Program. The carrier received a permanent operating authority in October 2012 and during inspections in both 2011 and 2012 had failed six out of nineteen inspections. The bus involved in the accident had been subjected to roadside inspections five times in twenty-four months; brake violations were the cause of three of those inspections. The FMCSA gave the company a satisfactory rating less than a month before the crash.

A truck driver who in Elizabethtown, Kent killed six passengers when he crashed into another vehicle on the interstate. The truck driver was not only in serious violation of the rules on hours of service but had also been maintaining two log books. The FMCSA had opened an investigation on the carrier the week the crashed occurred because of an alert in the CSA system. The carrier had previous alerts for the same violation. They also discovered all eight of the carriers’ drivers maintained logs with false information and that the company routinely scheduled drivers in a manner that violated regulations concerning service hours.

In Murfreesboro, Tennessee a tractor-trailer driver crashed into traffic that was stopped on Interstate 24. The accident killed two people and injured six others. The driver was traveling in excess of the 70-hour limit, and when NTSB reviewed company records, it discovered drivers routinely operated above legal hours limits and maintained logs with falsified information. The company had CSA alerts regarding hours’ violations for 18 out of 30 months during the period November 2010 to May 2013.

The FMCSA says it has tripled the number of unsafe carriers and truck drivers that it has removed from the road due to more thorough and comprehensive investigations. The agency also claimed that it issued 47 orders for immediate shutdown or “imminent hazard.” This was an increase of more than five times the ten (10) it issued in 2011.So far this year the agency has closed 52 bus companies and issued at least 11 imminent hazard orders.

Jeff Rasansky

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