Category: Transportation

Amtrak’s ‘Failing’ Safety Culture Faulted by NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined November 14 that the April 2016 fatal derailment of a train near Chester, Pennsylvania, was caused by deficient safety management across many levels of the organization and the lack of a clear, consistent, and accepted vision for safety.

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Four Opioids Added to DOT Testing Program

On November 13, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance published a final rule that expands the Department’s current drug testing panel to include four semi-synthetic opioids.

EPA Proposes Amendments to Big-Rig Standards

The Trump EPA has issued the first of what is expected to be two proposals to amend the Obama EPA’s 2016 Phase 2 rules governing emissions from medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles.

Too Tired to Drive? You’re Fired!

A tired driver takes a few snooze breaks. Should his company be allowed to fire him? It seems to make sense and, indeed, is the law, that if one of your drivers is too tired to drive that he or she should take a break. However, one driver recently took his company to court over […]

A Worrisome Uptick in Highway Fatalities

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016. That’s an increase of 5.6% from 2015. Because the number of miles driven increased as well, the overall increase in deaths per 100 million miles traveled is 2.6%.

Crash Avoidance, Cybersecurity, and V2V Communications

Pretty soon, your car may be able to tell you what’s around the next corner, whether there’s stopped traffic in the fog bank ahead, and how to avoid construction traffic on your way to work each morning by communicating with other vehicles. Unfortunately, the same technology that will allow your car to exchange information with […]

Who Is Your Car Talking To? A Look at V2V Communications

Most of us have grown accustomed to phones, tablets, and Global Positioning System (GPS) devices that talk to us—our cars, in contrast, tend to be rather taciturn. That wasn’t always the case. For a brief period in the 1980s and 1990s, an assortment of cars—from the Chrysler LeBaron to the Nissan Maxima—verbalized warnings to drivers […]

Seat Belt Use Is Lagging

A new national survey finds that, while they properly restrain their children, many adults mistakenly believe they are safe riding in the back seat without buckling up. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says that among adults who admit to not always using belts in the back, four out of five surveyed say they […]

FMCSA Outreach Effort Targets ELD Transition

In anticipation of the upcoming deadline for motor carriers to transition from paper logs to electronic logging devices (ELDs) to record driver hours of service, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is conducting a public education and outreach effort. The ELD Implementation National Tour, taking place through November, is geared towards helping commercial motor […]

Safety Tips for Large Truck and Bus Drivers from the ‘Our Roads, Our Safety’ Campaign

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), there are more large trucks and buses on America’s roadways than ever before. Nearly 12 million registered commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) are operating in the United States today. Those vehicles must share the road with more than 251 million registered passenger vehicles (according to 2014 figures […]