U.S. Legislative Updates

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new standard that would capture safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash. The proposed rule would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs)—devices that collect specific safety related data—in all light passenger vehicles beginning September 1, 2014.

"By understanding how drivers respond in a crash and whether key safety systems operate properly, NHTSA and automakers can make our vehicles and our roadways even safer," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "This proposal will give us the critical insight and information we need to save more lives."

NHTSA estimates that approximately 96 percent of model year 2013 passenger cars and light-duty vehicles are already equipped with EDR capability. These devices are located in the vehicle and require special hardware and software to download the information. A crash or air bag deployment typically triggers the EDR, which collects data in the seconds before and during a crash. The data collected by EDRs can be used to improve highway safety by ensuring NHTSA, other crash investigators and automotive manufacturers understand the dynamics involved in a crash and the performance of safety systems.

The new safety regulation proposed by NHTSA would require EDRs as mandatory equipment in passenger vehicles that weigh less than 8,500 pounds. The proposal includes the same standardized data collection requirements established by NHTSA in 2006 for EDRs that are voluntarily installed by automakers and mandates that automakers provide a commercially available tool for downloading the data. In keeping with NHTSA’s current policies on EDR data, the information would be treated by NHTSA as the property of the vehicle owner and would not be used or accessed by the agency without owner consent.

The proposal and information on how to submit comments are available here.


The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced that random verifications of driver Medical Examiner’s Certificates (MEC) will be conducted. The purpose of the random verification is to confirm that the medical examination was indeed conducted and the information on the MEC is accurate. According to the FMCSA, the random verification is not to evaluate the driver’s medical fitness to operate a CMV.

FMCSA will take the following steps to validate the authenticity of MECs: 1) contact the Medical Examiner’s (ME) office at the telephone number indicated on the certificate; 2) explain the inquiry’s purpose and indicate that it is intended solely to confirm that the document presented by the driver matches the records maintained by the ME; and 3) provide the driver’s name and date of birth, the date of issuance of the MEC, and any restrictions indicated thereon and request verbal confirmation of the information provided.


The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has implemented 11 new improvements to its Safety Measurement System (SMS). The changes, developed over several months with feedback from the public and stakeholders throughout the industry, are intended to enhance the agency’s ability to identify and take action against trucks and buses with safety and compliance concerns.

The SMS uses all available inspection and crash data to prioritize carriers for interventions. SMS quantifies on-road safety performance of carriers to identify the specific safety problems the carrier exhibits and to monitor whether performance is improving or worsening. SMS helps FMCSA more efficiently apply its resources and bring carriers and drivers into compliance with Federal safety regulations in order to prevent crashes and save lives.

The SMS improvements are intended to give FMCSA more precise information to assess a company’s on-the-road safety performance. The enhancements: changing the Cargo-Related BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC to better identify HM-related safety and compliance problems; strengthening the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by including cargo and load securement violations that were previously in the Cargo-Related BASIC; counting intermodal equipment violations found during drivers’ pre-trip inspections; aligning speeding violations to be consistent with current speedometer regulations that require speedometers to be accurate within 5 mph; changing the name of the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance BASIC to more accurately reflect violations contained within the BASIC; and aligning the severity weight of paper and electronic logbook violations equally on the SMS for consistency purposes.

For complete details on the new SMS improvements, visit the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) website at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/.


NAFA recently surveyed Members asking for fleet managers’ opinions of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program. The main component of CSA is the Safety Measurement System (SMS) which analyzes safety violations from inspections and crash data to identify high-risk truck fleets for compliance reviews and other more-focused interventions to address specific problems. The survey results will be used to inform Congress and DOT of changes that fleet managers would like to see to the CSA.

A narrow majority responded that CSA will be effective in making highways safer by reducing the number of truck accidents (48.1 percent somewhat effective, 4.8 percent very effective). Almost 80 percent responded that CSA will improve the quality of drivers. 

A controversial issue surrounding CSA is the use of crash involvement as a measure of future crash risk. 60 percent of respondents said that crash involvement by fleet vehicles is not an accurate measure of future crash risk; and 63 percent said that CSA should not measure fleets on accidents, regardless of fault.