In The News
ATA disputes truck safety report
The American Trucking Associations disagrees with a legal association’s new report that charges truck safety is poorly enforced.
The American Association for Justice, formally the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, analyzed data from the Motor Carrier Management Information System, maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The AAJ reported that as of April, 28,274 carriers in operation have conditional or unsatisfactory safety ratings.
The truck-involved fatality rate is at its lowest rate since the U.S. Department of Transportation began collecting this data in 1975, the ATA responded.
The 2009 Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's Roadcheck yielded the highest compliance rates ever for the North American Standard Level I inspections, it added.
The AAJ said West Virginia led the nation in rate of companies in violation of safety requirements per 100,000 population with 58 companies, followed by North Dakota, 51, and Nebraska, 48.
Arizona, California and Hawaii tied, with one company in violation per state, with the lowest number of companies in violation.
The average number of companies violating requirements in any state was 15.
The AAJ noted that 87 percent of the companies violating safety standards have fleets of 10 trucks or fewer.
It also mentioned a 2009 Government Accountability Office report that more 1,000 trucking companies were “reincarnations†of prior companies that had been fined or found in violation.
The FMCSA was not immediately available for comment.
The report is available at www.justice.org
.
www.eTrucker.com