Highway safety may not be at the forefront of your mind, but it is a major concern for many federal workers at agencies like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the National Transportation Safety Administration (NTSB). NTSB is the agency that maintains an ongoing list of “most wanted” transportation safety improvements intended to reduce transportation accidents and save lives.
The top federal transportation safety issues as listed by NTSB include items that must be addressed by either the FMCSA or the NHTSA, and 4 of the issues are listed as having an acceptable response, but are progressing slowly (yellow light status). One safety issues is listed as having an unacceptable response (red light status), in this case from the FMCSA.
Top 5 Federal Transportation Safety Issues
- Improve the Safety of Motor Carrier Operations (yellow light status, assigned to the FMCSA). The goal of this issue is for the FMCSA to prevent motor carriers from operating if they put vehicles with mechanical problems on the road or unqualified drivers behind the wheels.
- Prevent Medically Unqualified Drivers from Operating Commercial Vehicles (red light status, assigned to the FMCSA). NTSB would like the NHTSA to establish a comprehensive medical oversight program for interstate commercial drivers, ensure that examiners are qualified and know what to look for, track all medical certificate applications, enhance oversight and enforcement of invalid certificates, and provide mechanisms for reporting medical conditions.
- Enhance Protection for Motorcoach Passengers (yellow light status, assigned to the NHTSA). In order to resolve this issue, the NHTSA would have to redesign motor coach window emergency exits so passengers can easily open them, issue standards for stronger bus roofs and require them in new motor coaches, devise new standards to protect motor coach passengers from being thrown out of their seats or ejected when a bus sustains a front, side, or rear impact or rolls over.
- Enhance Protection for School Bus Passengers (yellow light status, assigned to the NHTSA). NTSB would like the NHTSA to devise new standards to protect school bus passengers from being thrown out of their seats or ejected when a bus sustains a front, side or rear impact or rolls over.
- Prevent Collisions by Using Enhanced Vehicle Safety Technology (yellow light status, assigned to the NHTSA). The goal of this desired improvement is for the NHTSA to reduce rear-end collisions through use of adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance system technologies.
Since the above important improvements have been recommended by the NTSB in order to reduce highway accidents and save lives, it is of concern that each issue is either moving towards resolution slowly or not at all. In a time when budget cuts at the state and federal levels are rampant, we hope that federal officials don’t put safety improvements on hold at the cost of American lives.
If your live has been forever changed by a serious Virginia auto accident or a tractor trailer accident, then we can help you recover from the damage.
Please contact the law offices of Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas today and let us work with you to secure the compensation that you deserve.
