Summary

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has taken steps to improve motor carrier safety. It has established the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, developed and solicited industry comments on a Safety Action Plan, and has begun work on some initiatives in that plan. The Safety Action Plan is an overall strategy for improving the safety of commercial motor vehicles and contains 47 initiatives aimed at achieving the Department's goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2009 in crash fatalities involving large trucks. These initiatives focus on increasing enforcement of federal safety regulations; increasing safety awareness; improving safety information and technology; and improving performance standards for vehicles, drivers, and motor carriers. The Department has also published a proposed rule to limit the number of hours that commercial motor vehicle operators may drive before resting. Under this rule, the Department estimates that 115 fatigue-related fatalities would be avoided annually. DOT officials confirm that they do not have a firm analytic basis for the assumptions on which these estimates are made, but rather supplemented available research with their professional judgment. Thus, the reasonableness of DOT's assumptions and the resulting estimate of lives that could be saved is unknown. Also, the Department has not articulated how the individual initiatives in the Safety Action Plan contribute to reducing fatalities, nor has it determined whether it can reasonably expect to complete all 47 activities within expected budgetary and human resources. Department officials told GAO that publication of the plan signals DOT's intent to carry it out and that they expect to examine resource needs this year. Because its goal of reduced fatalities is extremely ambitious, it is important that the Department determines how its actions will lead to a reduction in fatalities and whether it can reasonably expect to carry out the plan's initiatives.

GAO noted that: (1) the motor carrier administration has developed an overall strategy for improving the safety of commercial motor vehicles (trucks and buses); (2) this strategy, called the Safety Action Plan, covers the years 2000 through 2003 and contains 47 initiatives that are intended to be an initial step in enabling DOT to reach its goal of reducing fatalities due to crashes involving large trucks by 50 percent by 2009; (3) these initiatives fall within several broad categories, including increasing the enforcement of federal safety regulations, increasing safety awareness, improving safety information and technology, and improving performance standards for vehicles, drivers, and motor carriers; (4) however, DOT has not articulated how the individual initiatives, or sets of initiatives, in the plan will contribute to reductions in truck-related fatalities; (5) in response to the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, criticisms by congressional subcommittees, and recommendations by DOT's Inspector General, GAO, and others, DOT has taken initial steps toward improving motor carrier safety; (6) these steps include establishing a new organizational structure--the motor carrier administration--that has accountability for truck safety and that supports a greater emphasis on enforcement and compliance; (7) also, DOT appears to be making progress on some of the individual initiatives in its Safety Action Plan; (8) the motor carrier administration sought comments on a draft of its Safety Action Plan from 49 organizations representing industry and the safety community; (9) it also published proposed revisions to its regulations that limit the number of hours that drivers of commercial motor vehicles are permitted to drive before resting; (10) under the proposed rule, DOT estimates that 115 fatigue-related fatalities would be avoided annually; (11) DOT recognizes the uncertainty of its estimates but emphasized that providing drivers with more time for sleep will lessen fatigue and thereby reduce the number of fatigue-related crashes; and (12) the reasonableness of DOT's assumptions and the resulting estimate of the number of lives that could be saved if the proposed rule is adopted, however, are unknown.