Crashes or accidents involving commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) can be costly in many ways, and they usually trigger a series of actions to be taken. Some of those actions are required by laws and regulations, and some are recommended to mitigate risk.

A variety of federal, state, and local laws and regulations require motor carriers and drivers to track and report accidents. Although motor carriers are not required to investigate accidents, investigations are recommended as a way to find the cause, reduce liability, and/or prevent future crashes.

• Federal and state or local governments have several requirements for CMV accident reporting, but not for investigating.

The laws and regulations governing commercial motor vehicle (CMV) accidents include:

• Federal accident recordkeeping (accident register) requirements in 390.15;
• Federal post-accident drug and alcohol testing requirements in 382.303;
• Federal accident reporting requirements when hazardous materials, substances, or wastes are involved, in Part 171; and
• State and/or local accident reporting requirements regulated by those jurisdictions.

Note that there are no requirements for motor carriers to investigate accidents.

Exemptions from the federal accident recordkeeping requirements may be found in 390.3(f).

Note: Many years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation required certain CMV accidents to be reported to the federal government. Today, federal regulations do not require accident reporting except for certain incidents involving hazardous materials.

• A vehicle must meet certain weight, design, and/or use criteria to be considered a CMV.
• When a motor carrier’s CMVs are involved in any accident, the company should investigate and must keep certain records.

Accident investigation and tracking is performed by motor carriers and their drivers who operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs).

A commercial motor vehicle (CMV) is any self-propelled or towed vehicle used on a highway to transport property or passengers in interstate commerce, but only when the vehicle:

• Has a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or gross combination weight rating (GCWR), or gross vehicle weight (GVW) or gross combination weight (GCW), of 10,001 pounds or more, whichever is greater; or
• Is designed or used to transport 9 or more passengers (including the driver) for compensation or 16 or more passengers (including the driver) not for compensation; or
• Is transporting hazardous materials of a type or quantity that requires placarding.

A highway is any road, street, or way (whether on public or private property) that is “open to public travel,” meaning that the road or way is available (except during scheduled periods, extreme weather, or emergency conditions) and passable by four-wheel standard passenger cars, and is open to the general public for use without restrictive gates, prohibitive signs, or regulation other than restrictions based on size, weight, or class of registration.

Intrastate operations

A key part of the CMV definition is interstate commerce, meaning commerce that crosses state or national borders. Motor carriers and drivers that are only involved in intrastate (in-state) commerce are subject to that state’s accident-related laws and regulations. Under those laws or regulations, the definition of CMV may differ.

• An accident register is a record of specific details regarding commercial motor vehicle (CMV) accidents.
• Information in an accident register can be audited by the government or requested by other carriers.
• Accident registers must be retained following federal regulations and include all necessary information.

Motor carriers must keep an accident register containing the following information for each accident:

1. Date of accident;
2. City or town in which (or most near where) the accident occurred, and the state in which the accident occurred;
3. Driver name;
4. Number of injuries;
5. Number of fatalities; and
6. Whether hazardous materials were released, other than fuel spilled from the fuel tanks of vehicles involved in the accident.

Along with the above information, motor carriers must also retain copies of any accident reports required by state or other governmental entities or insurers.

Retention

For each accident, the above information must be retained for three years after the date of the accident.

Format

A register, by definition, is simply a list or record containing information. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) do not specify the format of the accident register, only the content. Therefore, an accident register could be typed on a paper form, handwritten on a sheet of paper, or entered into an electronic spreadsheet or other type of electronic record, as long as it contains the required information, is kept for the required length of time, and can be presented to an auditor upon request.

What if there are no accidents to record?

If a motor carrier has experienced no Department of Transportation (DOT)-recordable accidents in the past three years, there is no need for the company to have an accident register. However, because the carrier will be expected to provide an accident register during an audit or investigation, it may be best practice to maintain a blank register or a register that says, for example, “no DOT-recordable accidents in the past three years.” That way, the carrier has something concrete to show to an auditor, rather than simply stating that the company has no accident register.

Exemption

CMVs designed or used to transport between 9 and 15 passengers (including the driver), not for direct compensation, are exempt from most of the FMCSRs under 390.3(f)(6) but are not exempt from the requirement to keep an accident register.

Should carriers keep two accident registers?

Many motor carriers choose to keep two accident registers, one for the DOT and one for internal use at the company. The DOT register contains the required information and is kept for three years.

The company’s internal register can contain many more details about each crash and can be kept for as long as needed. This type of register can be useful for internal accident investigations, trend analysis, insurance purposes, monitoring driver performance, or other reasons. Some information a company may include on this type of register includes:

• Details about the timing and location of the crash,
• Details about the nature and consequences of the crash,
• Whether the crash was deemed preventable,
• Details about insurance and the costs of the crash, and
• Disciplinary action or training that resulted from the crash.

Providing accident-register information to other employers

If a carrier has information on their accident register involving a current or former driver, they may need to share that information with other motor carriers. As required under 391.23(d), when (or soon after) a driver applies for employment as a driver, the prospective (new) employer must ask that driver’s current and/or former motor carrier employers for information about any accidents that the driver may have been involved in within the past three years.

If a former employer receives such a request from a prospective employer, they must respond within 30 days of receiving it. The former employer must provide either:

• The information in the carrier’s DOT accident register for that driver, if any; or
• An indication that the driver was not involved in any DOT-recordable accidents within the past three years.

Prospective employers must also ask for information about any other accidents that the driver may have been involved in. The company may, but is not required to, provide such information. They are only required to provide the data that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires them to have on their accident register for that driver.

• CMV crashes are considered “accidents” if they result in fatalities, injuries, and/or disabling damage to any involved vehicle.

For the purpose of keeping an accident register, an “accident” is defined in 390.5 as an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) on a highway in interstate or intrastate commerce which results in:

1. A fatality; or
2. Injury to a person requiring immediate treatment away from the scene of the accident; or
3. Disabling damage to any vehicle requiring it to be towed from the scene.

The term “accident” does not include an occurrence which involves only:

• Boarding or exiting from a stationary vehicle; or
• The loading or unloading of a vehicle’s cargo; or
• The operation of a non-CMV passenger car by a motor carrier, as long as passengers are not being transported for-hire.

As used above:

• A fatality is any injury that results in the death of a person at the time of the accident or within 30 days of the accident.
• Disabling damage is vehicle damage that prevents a vehicle from leaving the scene of the accident in its usual manner, in daylight, after simple repairs. This includes vehicles that could have been driven but would have been further damaged if driven. Disabling damage does NOT include:
  • Damage that can be fixed temporarily at the scene without special tools or parts;
  • Tire disablement without other damage (even if no spare is available);
  • Headlamp or taillight damage; or
  • Damage to turn signals, horn, or windshield wipers that makes them inoperative.
• Immediate treatment is medical treatment that happens without an unreasonable delay. A person “immediately” receives medical treatment if they are transported directly from the scene to a hospital or other medical facility as soon as it is considered safe and feasible to do so.

• Carriers must ensure CMV accidents are reported to the appropriate state and local authorities.

When a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver is involved in an accident, the driver and the company need to ensure that any required accident reports are made to the proper authority or authorities.

Accident reporting requirements for CMVs exist only at the state and local level. The need to report an accident to the state or local authorities is often based on:

• The value of the property that was damaged,
• Whether there was a fatality or injury, and/or
• Whether an enforcement officer responded to the scene.

In many but not all cases, accident reporting is handled by the enforcement officer (if any) who arrives at the scene. In some cases, accident reporting is required even if an officer was on-scene.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) do not require accident reporting, even if there is a fatality. However, accident recording — on an accident register — is required.

Under Part 171 of the Hazardous Materials Regulations, any unintentional release of hazardous materials must be reported, including incidents that occur during loading, unloading, or temporary storage. For example, if a driver is loading a drum of hazardous material into a stationary vehicle and the drum falls and begins to leak, the incident is reportable.

• Train drivers on how to behave, what to do, and what not do, immediately after a crash.
• Establish a cross-functional “Go-Team” to respond to major crashes to minimize the risk of litigation.

You just never know when it might happen to your driver. How drivers respond at the accident scene may determine if the situation goes from bad to worse.

The first step is to be prepared for a major accident.

In the case of a major accident you have all of the normal accident considerations and decisions, such as:

• Finding out what happened,
• Finding out if the driver was hurt,
• Figuring out what I can (or what I must) do for my driver,
• Finding out if anyone else was harmed,
• Determining the level of property damage,
• Developing an idea of what the situation is on the scene,
• Determining the condition of the cargo and notifying the customer (if necessary),
• Deciding if the truck is drivable, and
• Initiating an in-house accident investigation or reporting the accident to the insurance company so they can begin investigating it.

Initial response to a crash

Because of the consequences involved in mishandling a major accident, you will have two additional decisions to make.

• First, do you need to form a “go-team” to get out to the crash site?
• When do you need to notify your attorney?

Go-teams can be made up of company safety and management personnel, legal counsel employees, third party adjusters or administrators (TPAs), insurance company representatives, equipment and cargo recovery specialists, and clerical personnel.

The exact composition of the company go-team would depend on the capabilities of the company personnel, the needs of the scene, the time that has elapsed since the accident, distance the people are from the scene, and the availability and capabilities of TPA or insurance representatives near the scene. If you have not developed a go-team call list, you are going to have problems developing one in the middle of the night.

The go-teams job will be to support the driver, correctly collect and document information, get evidence preserved, liaison with emergency services (including law enforcement), and oversee equipment and cargo recovery. If the accident involved serious injuries or fatalities, plan on bringing your legal counsel onboard as soon as possible. Some carriers that use go-teams include the company attorney in the goteam (for notification and consultation purposes).

At-the-scene driver training

Even though technically not part of your “go team,” your driver will be your initial representative at the scene. However, most drivers do not have experience at dealing with major accidents (and that is a good thing). This is why driver training is a critical step in getting ready to properly handle the aftermath of a major accident.

It’s normal for a person experiencing an accident to be shook up. However, what is done right away can protect the driver and your company from future possible liability.

Encourage your drivers to learn the following ten points:

1. Get a hold of their emotions.
2. Secure the vehicle.
3. Turn on the emergency flashers.
4. Call the police on a cell phone if someone hasn’t already done so.
5. Check on the occupants of the other vehicle.
6. Put warning devices out within the first ten minutes.
7. Contact the company and follow their instructions.
8. Be cooperative with the police and if necessary, wait for a lawyer or fleet representative to arrive.
9. If there is a dash-cam or video event recorder on the truck, to preserve the accident footage, stop the recording loop if the device is not capable of automatically doing so. Contact dispatch immediately if enforcement wants the Secure Digital (SD) card.
10. Document the accident on a company-provided camera or the driver’s personal phone.

The driver should be prepared to surrender the personal cell phone to a company lawyer or other designated representative, to preserve evidence as to the status of the phone at the time of the accident.

Driver behavior

With emotions running high, your drivers may be tempted to do one of two things.

1. They may imply fault by inadvertently apologizing, or
2. Get defensive if verbally attacked by other parties involved in the accident.

Both are inappropriate responses, no matter the amount of stress that the driver is under.

Drivers should think before they speak. Anything said can and may be used against them in a civil lawsuit. Drivers need to protect themselves and their company’s interest but must be cooperative, professional, and polite to avoid problems later.

Train your drivers to protect the scene (place out warning devices), get help on the way, and provide assistance to the best of their ability.

Not getting witness information is a common error committed by drivers. This can be caused by the “officers will get it” assumption or the actions of the officers on scene. Officers chase everyone away except the vehicles/drivers directly involved in the accident. Also, some witnesses give up and leave without giving a statement to anyone.

Train your drivers to ask a question or two of witnesses, not carry on a conversation with them, and complete (or have the witness complete) a witness card. These should be provided as part of an “accident kit” that the driver is familiar with.

• Motor carriers should investigate any accidents involving their drivers and CMVs in order to establish the corrective actions to be taken at their company.

Because of the dangerous and highly regulated nature of the motor carrier industry, one of a carrier’s highest concerns is the safety of its employees and the general public through the prevention of accidents. However, regardless of how good a carrier’s safety and accident prevention programs are, as long as there are cars, trucks, and buses on the nation’s highways, accidents involving all three can (and do) happen.

When an accident does happen, it is in the motor carrier’s best interest (from a liability and best-practice standpoint) to discover exactly what happened and why. This process of discovery is more commonly known as an accident investigation. Each motor carrier needs to have an effective accident investigation process as part of its comprehensive safety program, even if that process involves hiring a professional accident investigator.

Generally, a thorough accident investigation will:

• Determine how potentially severe the accident is (or will be),
• Gather the relevant facts and circumstances surrounding the accident,
• Identify the root cause or causes of the accident,
• Determine how consequential the accident is (or could become);
• Develop recommendations for the company to address/eliminate the root cause or causes, and
• Implement the corrective action recommendations to prevent reoccurrence.

Most commercial motor vehicle (CMV) accidents result from a breakdown in the motor carrier’s safety management controls, which are the company’s internal processes and procedures used to ensure compliance and safety. For example, a breakdown in those controls could result in the use of an unqualified or untrained driver or unsafe equipment. A good accident investigation process identifies and analyzes these breakdowns, then recommends corrective actions to prevent similar types of accidents from reoccurring.

An accident investigation has three basic components:

• Gathering the accident data,
• Analyzing the accident factors, and
• Response.

• Companies or their hired investigators must gather routine data as part of the accident investigation process.

The gathering of accident data is perhaps the most critical step in any accident investigation. Data must be gathered quickly and properly. The accident investigator must use a systematic plan to get all the relevant information, including:

• The driver’s report
• Witness statements
• Vehicle inspection reports/records
• Drug/alcohol tests
• The insurance company’s report
• Police reports
• Photographs/sketches of the scene
• Any video/dash cam footage that might be available
• Driver records (including hours-of-service records, shipment paperwork, driver file, etc.)
• Electronic logging device and/or GPS records
• Measurements taken at the scene
• Hazmat report (if applicable)

• Accident photographs are a helpful tool and a necessary part of the investigation process.
• Those designated to take photographs should be trained on how, when, and where to take them.

In many accidents, photographs provide the most telling details. From a photograph, an accident reconstructionist can often determine how an accident occurred. If equipped with a camera, the driver should take a set of photographs.

If the company or its insurance carrier are unable to take photos before the scene is “cleaned up,” they may have to depend on any photos taken by the driver. This is yet another reason for companies to make sure their drivers have received proper training in what to do in case of an accident (and are provided with a camera).

If the carrier (or their investigator) are able to be at the scene while the vehicles are still there, another set of photos should be taken. One extra picture may provide the missing clue needed to reconstruct the accident. Even after the accident scene has been cleared, there may still be value to pictures of the scene, showing terrain, traffic signals, and road conditions.

What photographs should (and should not) be taken?

Photographs are critical to reconstruct an accident accurately. But to do that, the pictures must be taken properly. Among the pictures to take are:

• A wide shot taken from the fog stripe on the edge of the road looking toward the point of impact, showing the final location of the vehicles;
• Wide shots taken from the center line of the road showing the road in both directions and the final location of the vehicles;
• Wide shots from all sides of all vehicles involved, including damages of all kinds. Close-ups of damage can be taken. (While this is helpful in determining repair costs, priority should be given to the wide shots listed above, which are more useful in an investigation. Pictures of the damage can also be taken later.); and
• Close-ups of any skid marks, gouges in the road, and debris on the roadside.

There should NEVER be photographs taken of people who have been injured or killed at an accident. If the accident winds up in litigation, the plaintiff may use these photographs in court. Pictures can sway a jury regardless of the facts of the case. And, the company will be asked why it was necessary to take those photos in the first place.

Employers should explain what each picture shows and where they or the driver were standing when it was taken.

• After accident data has been collected, the next step is to analyze it to determine why the crash occurred.
• The carrier will use this analysis to inform their response and any corrective actions to be implemented at the company.

Once the motor carrier has collected all the facts and opinions about an accident, they must try to make sense of them. Through data collection, the carrier should have already determined who, what, when and where. Now they must study the facts to determine why the accident occurred and then respond appropriately.

In every accident, the motor carrier will need to analyze:

• The people. Was the driver qualified? Did the driver receive appropriate training? Was the driver new to the job or new to the route? Were the hours-of-service regulations being obeyed? Was the driver pressured or fatigued?
• The equipment. Was the equipment properly serviced and maintained? Were procedures to ensure equipment maintenance followed? Were any problems noted in the driver vehicle inspection report?
• The conditions. Conditions rarely are the major cause of an accident, but they may play a role in how the drivers and vehicles responded to the situation. Was it raining, snowing, windy, or icy? Did the weather impair visibility? Were the roads slippery? Was traffic congested?
• The procedures. Were all company policies and procedures being followed? Were there written procedures for the driver, dispatcher, or mechanic that may have alerted them to a hazard that played a role in the accident?
• The freight. What was the cargo? Was it secured properly? Could the freight have shifted and contributed to how the vehicle responded?

By answering these questions, the carrier should be able to get to the root cause of the accident. A team approach to analyzing the accident data may also be helpful. An accident review committee, usually composed of operations, safety, and mechanical personnel, and one or more veteran drivers, can use its combined knowledge and experience to analyze the accident data. In some cases, using the services of an accident reconstructionist may be appropriate.

Response

Once the accident data is analyzed, the company will know how to respond to the issues raised by the accident. Based on the data and analysis, the company can make decisions regarding:

• Insurance settlements;
• If/how to fight litigation;
• Whether to file litigation of its own;
• If/how to discipline the driver;
• What additional training that driver, or the carrier’s drivers in general, may need;
• What policies or procedures may need review or revision; and
• Actions it can take to prevent similar accidents from happening.

• The FMCSA may conduct its own more in-depth investigations into significant crashes.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) may conduct an in-depth investigation or special study of a particular accident, or choose to audit the motor carrier if the crash was significant. If a company is contacted by FMCSA officials following a crash, they are expected to give all reasonable assistance within the time specified in the request. All records and information pertaining to the accident must be made available (see 390.15(a)).

The FMCSA has a policy to investigate all “significant” crashes. A significant crash is a crash involving a CMV with multiple fatalities (three or more), an unusually high number of injuries, and/or which is likely to result in heightened interest. This includes any incident to which the National Transportation Safety Board sends investigators, any crash involving a Mexican commercial vehicle, or any crash resulting in extensive, national media coverage.

• Motor carriers determine preventability and track preventable accidents to modify their internal processes and prevent future crashes.

Determining whether accidents are preventable is the most common form of quality control in the trucking industry. It provides the carrier with a measure of the safe operation of the fleet. Ideally, a carrier is striving for zero preventable accidents.

Of course, “zero preventable accidents” is a goal that very few carriers are able to achieve. Most use zero as the goal, and their efforts to achieve this goal keep preventable accidents to a minimum. By determining preventability and then tracking the preventable accidents, carriers can get the information needed to modify internal processes to reduce accidents.

Tracking preventability can lead to modification of internal processes such as driver screening and hiring, driver training, customer selection, and equipment configurations. This process of determining preventability, tracking preventability information, and acting on the information will help a carrier work toward the goal of zero preventable accidents.

For example, suppose a carrier is seeing a high incidence of preventable accidents involving equipment leaving the roadway in good driving conditions. The carrier can use the information generated by the investigation into the preventability of the accidents to:

• Improve fatigue countermeasure training. One possible cause for the high frequency of preventable accidents involving leaving the roadway could be fatigue.
• Improve speed and space training. Another reason for such accidents could be drivers making poor speed and space decisions. If this is a repeating theme during the preventability determinations, then there is a case for an internal process change (better training on speed and space management).
• Improve the equipment. The carrier could consider purchasing a lane departure warning system (LDWS). These systems provide drivers with an audible warning whenever their vehicle crosses a traffic dividing line without activating a turn signal first.

Keep in mind that the preventability determination does not just involve the driver. The preventability of the accident may involve the carrier as well. If the driver made an error that led to a preventable accident, the carrier must ask if the carrier itself contributed to the accident by:

• not matching the driver’s training to the operating environment;
• not equipping the driver for the situation they were in (lack of proper equipment, tools, accessories, and/or information); or
• forcing the driver into a situation where an accident was likely.

Carriers that have a strong internal accident review process that looks at all factors involved in an accident, make a preventability decision on all accidents, and then act on the information provided by the preventability investigations and determinations generally have low accident rates.

What is a preventable accident?

According to the National Safety Council, “a preventable accident is one in which the driver failed to do everything reasonable to avoid being involved in the accident.” A complete definition of “preventable accident” as applied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) can be found in Appendix B to Part 385 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). It reads:

“Preventability will be determined according to the following standard: “If a driver, who exercises normal judgment and foresight could have foreseen the possibility of the accident that in fact occurred, and avoided it by taking steps within his/her control which would not have risked causing another kind of mishap, the accident was preventable.”

In sum, if the driver could have seen the situation developing and taken steps to avoid being involved in the accident, it is considered preventable. For example: A car drives past a stop sign without stopping and hits a truck. The truck driver is clearly not at fault. However, if the truck driver did not take timely steps to see and avoid the car, the accident can be ruled preventable.

Generally, for clear-cut preventability decisions such as most backing accidents, you may make the call without the need to consult with or involve others.

However, in borderline cases or cases where the driver feels you have ruled harshly, you may need or want help. For many motor carriers, this help comes in the form of an accident review committee.

An accident review committee is a tool you can use to help determine accident preventability in difficult situations, or cases involving many variables or unusual circumstances.

Often made up of representatives from several departments as well as select drivers, an accident review committee offers several advantages to your decision-making process:

• Your drivers believe that they will be treated in a fair and timely manner — that they will get their chance to be heard by an impartial body.
• You are afforded a degree of protection from individual driver frustration since the decision-making responsibility is shared among several individuals.
• Since your accident review committee is made up of representatives from various departments and functions, your safety message is more likely to be shared throughout the organization.

Who should serve on your accident review committee? Consider including at least one representative from your:

• Operations department — Whether a frontline supervisor or manager, these individuals are familiar with your dispatch schedules, routes, and other related areas. They can provide valuable input should a driver introduce a conflict or circumstance involving a load assignment or operational practice as a contributing factor to an accident.
• Maintenance department — Having a representative familiar with the mechanical working of your equipment and general maintenance procedures is recommended. Claims of faulty equipment or equipment breakdown can be evaluated fairly.
• Driver force — Your drivers have the most knowledge and experience out on the road. They understand the changing traffic and weather conditions, and everyday hazards of the job none better. They can provide insight from a real-world perspective on how an accident could have been avoided.

Finally, you or another representative from the Safety Department should serve as chairperson. The exception to you serving as the chairperson, or even on the review committee, is if you are the person that makes the initial preventability rulings.

Since you or another representative from the Safety Department are most familiar with your company’s safety program and safe driving principles, you or your representative can serve as a guide for the committee — in addition to making any final or deciding vote.

A few final notes on your accident review committee:

• Keep in mind that it is not a popularity contest. The integrity of your process is critically important. In fact, the name of the driver should not be revealed.
• Drivers should not be called before the committee to discuss an accident. An accident should be evaluated solely on the facts of the case as presented in the written documentation (the accident file and the driver’s written statement of appeal and documentation).
• All voting should be by secret ballot.

• Motor carriers may request that certain types of crashes be deemed non-preventable.

Separate from the carrier’s internal accident reviews, FMCSA accepts requests to review certain types of vehicle crashes to determine if they were preventable. If the FMCSA agrees that a crash could not be prevented, the crash will be shown as “not preventable” in the agency’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) and Pre-employment Screening Program (PSP) and removed from the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scoring process for the Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC).

To be eligible for review, a crash must have occurred on or after August 1, 2019.

A crash is only eligible if the commercial motor vehicle (CMV):

1. Was struck by a motorist driving under the influence (or a related offense);
2. Was struck by a motorist driving the wrong direction and fully across the center line or median;
3. Was struck in the rear;
4. Was struck while legally stopped or parked, including when the vehicle was unattended;
5. Struck an individual committing or attempting to commit suicide by stepping or driving in front of the CMV;
6. Sustained disabling damage after striking an animal in the roadway;
7. Crashed due to an infrastructure failure, falling trees, rocks, or other debris, or was struck by cargo or equipment from another vehicle;
8. Was struck on the side in the rear, e.g., at the 5:00 or 7:00 point of impact;
9. Was struck by a vehicle that did not stop or slow in traffic;
10. Was struck by a vehicle that failed to stop at a traffic control device;
11. Was struck by a vehicle that was making a U-turn or illegal turn;
12. Was struck by a driver who experienced a medical issue which caused the crash;
13. Was struck by a driver who admitted falling asleep or admitted to distracted driving;
14. Was struck by a vehicle that was, in turn, struck by a motorist driving under the influence (or related offense); or
15. Was struck by a vehicle that was, in turn, struck by a driver operating in the wrong direction.
16. Was involved in a crash type that seldom occurs and does not meet another eligible crash type (e.g., being struck by an airplane or skydiver or being struck by a deceased driver).

Requests for crash reviews must be submitted through the national data correction system known as DataQs, available at dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov and is separate from the review of non-preventable accidents that may occur during a compliance review.

Transport Canada has given the provinces and territories authority over motor carrier safety in Canada. Canada’s accident investigations and reporting requirements are handled by each jurisdiction.

Find more information about Canada’s accident investigation and reporting requirements here.