5.6 C
New York

FMCSA to hold virtual summit to address rising trucker deaths

Published:

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will hold an online-only summit to address worrying trends in truck driver fatalities.

The FMCSA recently announced plans to hold the 2020 Trucking Safety Summit virtually on August 5, 2020 from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m..

The 2020 Trucking Safety Summit was originally scheduled to be held at U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington, D.C. on March 19, 2020, but the event was postponed due to Coronavirus concerns.

FMCSA scheduled the Truck Safety Summit in response to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in October 2019 that showed that in 2018, truck fatalities hit their highest rate since 1988. Notably, 2018 was the first full year that the controversial ELD Mandate was in effect for most truck drivers.

“Data and analysis released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that over the last several years, there has been an increase in fatalities as a result of crashes involving large trucks. To respond to this trend, FMCSA continues to work with state entities, industry and other to identify new approaches to safety,” the FMCSA wrote in a February 28 announcement.

The Truck Safety Summit was meant to bring together motor carriers, drivers, technology developers, state and federal officials, and safety advocacy groups to generate ideas on how to improve highway safety and reduce the number of truck fatalities on the nation’s highways. FMCSA said that the summit was designed to facilitate conversation among trucking industry members who might not normally meet face to face.

In January 2020, the FMCSA also announced the launch of the Large Truck Crash Causal Factors Study (LTCCFS) to examine the causal factors in large truck crashes.

The FMCSA pointed to a rise in truck crash fatalities as a reason for the study:

“Over the last three years (2016- 2018), fatal crashes involving large trucks increased 5.7 percent. This study will help FMCSA identify factors that are contributing to the growth in fatal large truck crashes, and in both injury and property damage only (PDO) crashes. These factors will drive new initiatives to reduce crashes on our nations roadways.”

The FMCSA says that they “seek information on how best to design and conduct a study to identify factors contributing to all FMCSA reportable large truck crashes (towaway, injury and fatal).”

Please click here for more information on the LTCCFS.

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Get the hottest daily trucking news

This Week in Trucking

Videos