The American Trucking Associations have finally put enough pressure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), compelling it to “make available a study of the links between Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) violations and crash risk used to develop its methodology for assigning carriers’ CSA scores,” says The Trucker. In a recent statement, FMCSA indicated that it would soon make the Violation Severity Assessment Study Report, which was published in 2007, publicly available through the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program docket found at www.fmcsa.dot.gov. The Associations allege that they have been requesting the results of the study in writing since 2010. The research, the motor carrier publication The Trucker reports, examined the use of police reports to determine accountability when it comes to trucking accidents. The various associations came together in a demand for the study in the hopes that it would allow them to “evaluate CSA and other substantial proposals to improve it.”
For many Atlanta truck accident attorneys the FMCSA’s delay in granting the requests of the Associations comes as a surprise, especially since the agency purports that its primary goal is to strengthen commercial vehicle and driver safety. Created in 2000, the agency was designed to regulate trucking practices in the United States.CSA is a comprehensive program administered by the FMCSA under the authority of the Department of Transportation. The CSA program is meant to improve motor carrier and bus safety by reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities by providing evaluations of the safety performance of carriers and drivers and identifying behavior patterns that may result in unsafe operations.
Attorneys at www.robertnkatz.com understand the importance of an agency like FMCSA. A trucking accident can be one of the most terrifying experiences an automobile driver can experience, especially when severe and oftentimes debilitating injuries result. The now-available Large Truck Crash Causation Study, conducted by the FMCSA in 2007 revealed that oftentimes, crashes involving both motor carriers and regular vehicles result from several varied factors. 32 percent of the crashes studied by FMCSA occurred when the truck driver ran out of the travel lane, either into another lane or off the road. Another 20 percent occurred when the truck driver lost control of the vehicle because he/she was either traveling too fast for conditions, a cargo shift occurred, or the truck experienced a vehicle systems failure. Almost 23 percent of the trucking accidents occurred simply when the truck driver was not paying attention and ended up clipping or colliding with the rear end of another vehicle in the truck’s travel lane.
The damages that a plaintiff may recoup include medical expenses, lost wages, funeral expenses and other economic losses, among other things. The injured are also entitled to recover for the pain and suffering caused by their injuries and treatment, while the spouse of the injured may be able to recover for loss of consortium. The term “loss of consortium” refers to one’s deprivation of the benefits of a family relationship due to injuries caused by another.
If you have been involved in a trucking accident in Georgia, and have questions about liability or the possibility of filing a claim contact an attorney here for a free consultation.