The feds have cracked down on motorcoach safety over the last year, but National Transportation Safety Board Chair Deborah Hersman testified before Congress today that more must be done to ensure the vehicles and drivers are as safe as can be.

With legislation still pending in Congress on requiring three-point lap/shoulder restraints on motorcoaches as well as window glazing and reinforced roofs, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is moving forward with implementing Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010, or CSA 2010. It seeks to improve compliance and performance programs to reduce commercial bus and truck crashes. Earlier this month, FMCSA published a notice that addresses the first of three principle components of CSA 2010, that being a more comprehensive motor carrier safety measurement system.

While calling CSA 2010 "ambitious" and "long overdue," Hersman said she is concerned that the milestones will be difficult to meet in addressing vehicle conditions and driver performance, two of the most important factors related to safe motor carriers.  FMCSA also seeks to implement broader progressive interventions added to compliance reviews such as warning letters and on-site and off-site investigations. A third element of CSA 2010 is a new safety fitness determination, or SFD, methodology based on performance data not necessarily tied to an on-site investigation.

"In the meantime, motor carriers continue to operate with poor management of their drivers and vehicles, which will lead to more accidents," she told the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security.

Current rules prevent FMCSA from putting carriers out of service with an unsatisfactory rating in only one of six factors and instead require unsatisfactory marks for two factors. This means that they could be unsatisfactory in either the vehicle or driver areas and still be allowed to operate. The NTSB said in a statement that it believes that an "unsatisfactory" in either category should be sufficient cause to place a carrier out of service. The NTSB has been recommending this rule be changed since 1999.

Hersman added during her testimony that FMCSA should have implemented incremental changes to its compliance review process while developing the more sweeping CSA 2010 program. She also discussed driver fatigue, electronic on-board recorders for hours of service, medically unqualified commercial drivers, and cell phone use by commercial drivers.

Meanwhile Anne S. Ferro, administrator of FMCSA testified that an NPRM governing commercial driver hours of service is expected to be published later this year and a final rule is expected by July 2011. FMCSA is also drafting a proposed rule to mandate reporting requirements to identify CDL holders who test positive for alcohol or drugs or fail to comply with testing requirements.