Personal Injury Law

Trucking Companies Subject to Stricter Penalties

Our Atlanta truck accident lawyers see many instances in which trucking companies simply ignore or pay little attention to safety rules and regulations designed to protect the motoring public. During the past 15 years, the three-strikes-you're-out rule has become a key aspect of the U.S. criminal justice system. The policy generally holds that repeat offenders are given mandatory life sentences when convicted of committing particularly egregious crimes like kidnapping and aggravated assault.

This concept has been adapted and adopted by other government units and applied to all sorts of regulatory requirements and enforcement actions, including by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Now, the FMCSA has thrown out its three-strikes policy for assessing maximum fines for motor carriers found to have committed a pattern of violations of "critical or acute" safety rules and gone to a two strikes rule. This basically tells trucking companies and drivers that on the second strike a large fine will follow. The change went into effect April 1.

The Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, which created the FMCSA, mandated the agency assess maximum civil penalties on anyone who committed a "pattern of violations" of important safety regulations, or to have "previously committed the same or a related violation" of critical regulations.

Five years later, the agency clarified its enforcement policy by adopting a three-strikes rule that defined both the "pattern of violations," and "previously committed the same or related violation," as three cases of violations occurring within the previous six years.

Within a year or two of adopting that policy, the agency began coming under fire from members of Congress and others who contended its enforcement efforts were too weak. Congress ordered the Government Accountability Office to examine the agency's enforcement practices.

In 2007, the GAO issued a report that said the FMCSA three-strikes policy had failed to assess maximum penalties against serious safety-rules violators and hadn't achieved the 1999 law's intent that maximum penalties be imposed when there had been two distinct patterns of violations or repeat violations.

Now, with a new administration in charge, the agency has revised its policy and issued a two-strikes rule. When the agency discovers two or more critical and/or acute violations in each of three or more different regulatory parts it can assess maximum fines.

A rogue carrier will be subject to the maximum fines when the pattern of critical or acute violations is discovered after the operator has had "previous contact" with the FMCSA, a state motor carrier safety enforcement agency, or other FMCSA-designated representative acting on behalf of FMCSA.

This new policy should lead to stricter enforcement of safety regulations, encourage lax companies to adopt better safety standards, and hopefully reduce the rate of injuries and deaths caused by unsafe trucks and unsafe driving practices.

Full post as published by Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog on April 26, 2009 (boomark / email).