DOT continues strengthening bus and truck safety across America

Whether you’re traveling by air, bus, or rail, your safety is always DOT’s top priority. And today I want to talk about what DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is doing to improve the safety of our nation's roadways for the more than 750 million passengers who ride motorcoaches and buses.

Last week, FMCSA awarded $8 million in federal grants to Pennsylvania to strengthen law enforcement efforts targeting buses and trucks on high-crash corridors throughout the state, and will also help the state conduct safety audits.

Inspectors in Philadelphia make sure a bus passes safety muster

As part of that effort, FMCSA Deputy Administrator Bill Bronrott joined with Pennsylvania officials last week at a surprise safety inspection checkpoint in Philadelphia to announce nearly $175,000 in funding for that city's commercial motor vehicle inspection unit that will be used to increase safety inspection strike forces at popular tourist destinations.

FMCSA also awarded the Pittsburgh Police Department nearly $240,000 to bolster commercial truck and bus inspections at tunnel entrances and to train its commercial motor vehicle enforcement unit.

And yesterday, on the opposite side of the country, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro was in Bismarck, ND to award the North Dakota Department of Transportation nearly $350,000 for an electronic commercial driver’s license testing system across that will help prevent fraud and ensure uniform testing. FMCSA also awarded the North Dakota Highway Patrol nearly $2 million to ramp up compliance reviews, safety audits, and thousands of inspections throughout the state, including ports of entry and remote border locations.

“We are committed to working side-by-side with our state partners to create a tight net of safety enforcement,” said Administrator Ferro. “These grants will provide North Dakota the resources needed to achieve this by boosting the police presence along critical traffic corridors and border crossings across the state.”

As Administrator Ferro was announcing the award, law enforcement officials throughout North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming conducted surprise bus driver and motorcoach safety inspections. The three-state inspection sweep is part of FMCSA’s important year-round safety partnership with the states.

On hand in Bismarck was North Dakota's John Sova, recently
named Grand Champion at the 2011 Northa American Inspectors Championship
(Photo courtesy truckinginfo.com)

Why all of these efforts? The answer is simple: we owe it to the traveling public to protect the safety of our roadways. The grants announced yesterday in North Dakota and last week in Pennsylvania will help our law enforcement partners save lives and ensure commercial carriers and drivers are operating in full compliance with federal safety regulations.

As Administrator Ferro said yesterday, "All we ask of motor carriers is safety in their operations and maintenance practices and observance of all federal and state safety regulations and local traffic laws."

That sounds like a good prescription for passenger safety.

Comments

[Harvey Botzman]

Let's not forget bicycle and pedestrian safety. It is important for the U. S. Department of Transportation to make certain there are sufficient funds for teaching about and enforcing the current laws, rules, and regulations in regard to bicycling and pedestrian safety.

This means including information about the right of bicyclists to ride on the road in a lane, that bicyclists must follow all rules of the road, etc.

Sufficient funds must be dedicated to teach adults how to ride a bicycle on the road. This includes training instructors and providing low or no cost courses for bicycling safety. This particularly necessary in urban and suburban areas out side of the 10 largest Census Bureau designated Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas.