Trucking industry looks for inaccuracies in crash stats

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is calling for clarification when it comes to the recorded amount of trucking fatalities that have occurred in the past. The organization is concerned that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is allowing other vehicle crashes into the statistics, including those driven by motorists without CDL training, reports The Trucker.

“The population of ‘trucks,’ therefore, now includes mobile homes, large pickups, cab chassis and various other larger vehicles, most of which are not used by motor carriers, except for short-haul pickups and deliveries,” the FMCSA said in a statement. “The changed definition increased the number of combination trucks by 17 percent and the number of single-unit trucks by about 22 percent for 2008."

Officials from the ATA worry that  the commerical trucking industry is being misrepresented because of these figures. Although the organization is in support of truck driving safety, they hope these types of statistics are not influencing unnecessary laws that are being put into  place to limit truckers abilities to work.

According to the FMCSA's website,  this nationwide organization is in charge of regulating all commerical truckers and drivers on the roadways across the country. They look into what changes can be made to ensure the protection by law of all motorists.

Trucking industry looks for inaccuracies in crash stats

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011