NTSB calls for renewed fight against drunk driving deaths

May 16, 2012

The Detroit News (5/16, Shepardson) reports, “The NTSB on Tuesday called for a renewed push to cut down on drunken driving deaths.” During the first day of a forum on drunk driving, federal officials discussed how to stop road deaths from drunk and drugged drivers. NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman “noted that the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities has been stuck between 30 percent and 32 percent of overall highway fatalities since 1995.” Hersman said, “We need fresh approaches, renewed commitment and the will — the personal and the political will — to make a difference…With so many crashes and lost lives, it could be easy to grow complacent and think the task is too daunting — that we can never eliminate substance-impaired driving.”

FMCSA plans to reduce truck-related crash fatalities over the next five years. Transport Topics Online (5/16, Miller) reports that “over the next five years, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to significantly reduce truck-related crash fatality rates by developing new credentialing and driver safety fitness standards, expanding its regulatory reach to include shippers and other industry players,” like receivers, brokers and freight forwarders, “and creating new programs aimed at weeding out high-risk motor carriers.” The plan stated that the “greatest potential for creating the safest CMV industry lies in focusing on outreach, oversight, and enforcement resources on the entire CMV transportation life-cycle.”