Ray LaHood Throws FMCSA Under the Bus

Posted on June 6, 2011 
Filed Under GETTING AUDITED, IN THE NEWS

So, let’s recap the Sky Express saga. They were audited in April, 2011. This was no doubt generated due to the 15 fatality bus crash in the Bronx by another bus company. They were found to have enough violations, which generated a pending Unsatisfactory rating. A passenger carrier with a pending Unsatisfactory rating has 45 days to demonstrate to DOT they have improved their safety operations, so DOT will upgrade their rating to Conditional, allowing them to operate. If a passenger motor carrier is making a good faith effort at complying with the rules, DOT can extend the Out of Service date by up to 10 days. Apparently, Sky Express had submitted enough paperwork which justified the FMCSA extending their Out of Service date.

Last Tuesday, May 31, Sky Express had a four fatality accident, where their driver evidently fell asleep. Sky Express was operating in the 10 day extension window granted by DOT at the time. On Thursday, Ray LaHood, Obama Secretary of Transportation rushed to the microphones to declare how disappointed he was in FMCSA, and that there will never be another extension under his watch. FMCSA, at that point, hurriedly revoked Sky Express’ authority to operate.

So, what do we make of this? First, I haven’t seen anything in news on the Richmond accident showing the driver was in violation of the hours rules when the bus crashed. Just because a driver falls asleep, does not mean he violated the hours of service rules. In fact, he probably was in compliance with the rules, otherwise, you would have heard something by now. Second, issuance of the 10 day extension is common practice within FMCSA. The agency usually leans against placing a motor carrier out of business, and gives them every benefit of the doubt before casually throwing private citizens out of work. I would wager the North Carolina FMCSA office did not casually issue that extension, but instead had proper justification for doing so.

So, what’s the fallout here? Basically, this means it’s going to be that much harder to get safety ratings upgraded. FMCSA personnel operate first and foremost under the rule of Cover Your Ass (CYA). Never do anything that may jeopardize your personal standing or job position. Safety, commonsense, the public good, whatever, all takes a backseat to CYA. With Obama flunkie Ray LaHood running wild, threatening to place any and every small business who has an accident out of business, the rules have changed. FMCSA personnel will now make it very difficult to get safety ratings, particularly Unsatisfactory ratings upgraded, just so they don’t have to face the wrath of politician Ray LaHood.

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