Crash preventability review: more than 5,600 crashes in the pilot, about 94% judged not preventable, and still no eraser for every accident

What the notice really said

The police report stays in the file whether or not a later program labels the crash not preventable. USDOT proposed making the crash preventability demonstration permanent, following a pilot that had been running since August 2017.

In that pilot FMCSA examined over 5,600 crashes and decided that about 94 percent could not have been prevented by the carrier or driver. That number describes how often the pilot approved requests. It is not a fleet statistic you can stamp onto a CSA packet.

The proposal would grow the reviewable crash types from eight to fifteen and pull not-preventable crashes out of the SMS Crash Indicator BASIC. Preventability applies to a defined list of crash categories, such as being struck in the rear or a suicide, along with the others from the pilot, and not to every fender-bender.

A crash that has not been ruled not preventable under the program rules can still be sitting in the data that insurers scrape. Check what is actually in effect before you tell a shipper "FMCSA erased it."

Secretary Chao announced the direction at MATS 2019, but a speech is not a rule. The program pages on fmcsa.dot.gov are where the request and review really happen.

How it plays out at the desk

We still ask for the police report, and we still file a DataQ over bad data. We do not pitch "94 percent" as a CSA wipe, and we do not tell brokers that every crash is the other driver's doing.

If a crash falls under a type the program covers, our safety team decides whether to file. It is a request and review process, and it does not belong in the notes on a rate confirmation.

For wrong records, see the DataQs article on the new clocks. Our carrier documents are on the broker packet page. Our hiring checks still include PSP and the Clearinghouse.

Safety handles crashes. Call +1 (224) 877-0350 for a conversation about the file, not for a blog statistic.

Where Royser draws the line

Royser documents every crash and files when the type qualifies. We do not hide a preventable crash behind the pilot's 94 percent figure.

And we will not tell a shipper "FMCSA erased it" before the program has actually ruled. Check what is in effect, because a 2019 proposal does not give anyone a delete button on the day of the crash.

Questions about our safety file? Call +1 (224) 877-0350 and talk to a real person, as long as it is about our crash and not the national sample.