Underride guards

NHTSA committee blasts DOT in truck underride report

WASHINGTON — Members of a committee advising Congress on how to reduce truck underride crashes with cars and the resulting deaths took regulators to task for not doing enough to protect against such crashes.

In a 410-page biennial report sent to Congress and to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday, members of the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP) alleged whitewashing within the U.S. Department of Transportation of information that could have been used to inform the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nhtsa-committee-blasts-dot-in-truck-underride-report

House, Senate lawmakers introduce road-crash victim bill

WASHINGTON — Marianne Karth lost two daughters in a truck crash 11 years ago and has been on a mission since then to get regulators in Washington to step up oversight of truck safety so that other parents can avoid her trauma.

A major development in that quest was the introduction last week of identical bills in the U.S. House and Senate to establish a career (not politically appointed) victim advocate position within the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The goal is to ensure that concerns from...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/house-senate-lawmakers-introduce-road-crash-victim-bill

Crash victims allege DOT violations related to underride guard report

WASHINGTON — Truck safety advocates want the Biden administration to investigate whether regulators violated ethics rules and federal law in conducting cost-benefit assessments of crash protection equipment for truck trailers.

In a letter sent Thursday to U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Eric Soskin requesting the investigation, the Truck Safety Coalition, along with a group of truck crash victim advocates and victim family members, alleged potential misconduct by DOT...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/crash-victims-allege-dot-violations-related-to-underride-guard-report

Truck safety lobby pressures DOT on crash prevention

truck crash

Truck safety advocates are calling on the Biden administration to act faster to prevent deaths resulting from large truck crashes, following new data compiled from federal sources.

The one-page report, released by the Truck Safety Coalition, ranks the 12 states with the highest fatality rates and overall deaths, based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

StateFatality rate*
Wyoming4.3
South Dakota3.1
Nebraska2.9
Arkansas2.9
Montana2.9
Alabama2.9
Idaho

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-safety-lobby-pressures-dot-on-crash-prevention-equipment

FMCSA will require annual inspections of rear impact guards

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will require that rear impact guards be included on the list of items that must be examined as part of annual inspections of commercial motor vehicles.

The final rule, scheduled to be published Tuesday and which goes into effect Dec. 9, follows recommendations from the U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2019 and a petition from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance seeking the change.

“While [federal regulations] have required rear impact...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fmcsa-will-require-annual-inspections-of-rear-impact-guards

Senate approves truck equipment mandates, dispatcher oversight measure

The U.S. Senate approved a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday that mandates several requirements for trucking previously approved by the U.S. House and will likely make it into a final bill.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was approved by a vote of 69-30 that was presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris, is the first major infrastructure package passed by the Senate chamber in decades. It injects $550 million of new funding into expanding and maintaining roads and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/senate-approves-truck-equipment-mandates-dispatcher-oversight-measure

How does Congress want to make trucking safe in 2022?

Lawmakers responsible for funding agencies within the executive branch publish documents – called congressional reports – that accompany the funding legislation to give agencies a sense of where some in Congress stand on issues that do not make it into the bill.

In the case of the fiscal year 2022 budget for the Department of Transportation, the House Appropriations Committee recently provided its list of recommendations that it wants DOT to tackle next year. While DOT and its modal agencies are...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-does-congress-want-to-make-trucking-safe-in-2022

Truck broker guidance, ELD data research rolled into highway bill

The Democrats’ version of the highway bill retains many of the truck-centric policies of last year’s version with two notable add-ons: guidance on truck brokers and dispatch services and a policy for using truckers’ electronic logging devices (ELDs) for government research.

The $547 billion “Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America) Act,” issued on Friday, is expected to be considered before the House Transportation and Infrastructure...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-broker-guidance-eld-data-research-rolled-into-highway-bill

Rear underride guards to be included in annual inspections

Federal regulators want to update safety standards by including rear underride guards on the list of items that must be examined as part of required annual inspections for every truck.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposed rulemaking, scheduled to be published on Tuesday, follows recommendations from the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year and a petition from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance seeking the change.

Federal regulations have required rear...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/rear-underride-guards-to-be-included-in-annual-inspections