During the first week of November, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended auditing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The NTSB claims that the FMCSA has a poor record of detecting safety risks among buses and trucks and is failing to prevent deadly accidents before they happen. The NTSB cited four recent crashes, resulting in a total of 25 deaths and 83 injuries, which they believe the FMCSA ought to have been able to catch. If an audit is pursued, it would mean an examination of both the thoroughness and quality of the process that the FMCSA uses, and may result in more strict FMCSA examinations of motor carriers in the future.

The full letter to Secretary Foxx can be read by clicking here. 



A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report release on November 1 found that an increased use of vehicle-to-vehicle technologies, some currently available and some still in development, could offer a significant boost to driver safety. The V2V technology studied by the GAO includes hardware that would facilitate communications among vehicles with software to compliment and that would analyze data and identify potential collisions. The devices could warn drivers of potential dangers and assist in the avoidance of dangers. The report also identified difficulties in implementing these technologies, including the need to iron out potential liability issues that arise from relying on V2V for accident avoidance, ensuring the V2V communication is secured, as well as addressing other privacy concerns that arise when transmitting data of any kind.

The GAO report can be read by clicking here.



The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a deadline of December 1, 2013 for employers to train their employees on how to read the new Safety Data Sheets (SDS), under the revised Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). This is the first of several deadlines OSHA is asking employers to meet during the phase-in period for the new HCS.
 
According to an OSHA press release, the training is needed early in the marketplace transition process as workers are already seeing the new labels and SDS on hazardous chemicals in their workplace. In addition to the December 1 deadline, employers must also update alternative workplace labeling and their hazard communication program as necessary and provide additional employee training for newly identified physical or health hazards by June 1, 2016.
 
OSHA information about the new standard can be found by clicking here.



The public is invited to comment on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) proposed enhancements to the display of information on the Safety Measurement System (SMS) Website. The changes to the website are aimed at making information and data more accessible and easier to understand. The FMCSA has invited fleets and others to learn more about the proposed changes through webinars hosted during the second half of November. The sixty day comment period will end on January 6, 2014.

The changes can be previewed by clicking here; information about signing up for the informational webinars, including several this week, can be found by clicking here; and information about public comments can be found by clicking here.