Can you appeal a DOT reportable accident?

For the record, here is FMCSA 390.15 in this you will see the actual rule. NOWHERE does it say a carrier is mandated to report anything. They are required ONLY to record it and collect all the data for review IF an agent of the FMCSA requests it.




§390.15 Assistance in investigations and special studies.
(a) Each motor carrier and intermodal equipment provider must do the following:

(1) Make all records and information pertaining to an accident available to an authorized representative or special agent of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an authorized State or local enforcement agency representative, or authorized third party representative within such time as the request or investigation may specify.

(2) Give an authorized representative all reasonable assistance in the investigation of any accident, including providing a full, true, and correct response to any question of the inquiry.

(b) For accidents that occur after April 29, 2003, motor carriers must maintain an accident register for three years after the date of each accident. For accidents that occurred on or prior to April 29, 2003, motor carriers must maintain an accident register for a period of one year after the date of each accident. Information placed in the accident register must contain at least the following:

(1) A list of accidents as defined at §390.5 of this chapter containing for each accident:

(i) Date of accident.

(ii) City or town, or most near, where the accident occurred and the State where the accident occurred.

(iii) Driver Name.

(iv) Number of injuries.

(v) Number of fatalities.

(vi) Whether hazardous materials, other than fuel spilled from the fuel tanks of motor vehicle involved in the accident, were released.

(2) Copies of all accident reports required by State or other governmental entities or insurers.

 

Also, unless I am misreading this, the FMCSA says they get crash reports AND inspection reports, indicating that it's not just inspections alone, though obviously here they aren't just talking about crashes.

Source

 

I never said the carrier is reporting it. But someone obviously is and the most obvious agency is the investigating officer/s. Whether or not the crash has to be reported in an inspection or whether they actually send the accident report to the FMCSA even without an inspection is what I'm curious about.

 

With one exception no data is reported to the FMCSA outside of the North American standard inspection report. Accidents are not routinely reported as a matter of procedure. However under some limited circumstances they can be if the situation is egregious enough.

 

Don't confuse MVR records with CSA-2010 records. They are not the same.

 

You are misreading it. The information has to be gathered by the carrier and made available to the FMCSA if requested.

I'm just guessing but I suspect the FMCSA as a policy does not want general accident data because the largest amount of the time the driver of the CMV is not at fault. Having a lot of general accident data in the database only serves to pollute the data. It is meaningless. Now if there is a safety situation to come to lite like this situation about unsafe Bus lines the FMCSA is going to collect that data and most likely take corrective action. Edited to add this is the egregious situation I was referring to earlier.

 

BTW to answer the OPs question. You can't appeal these accident involvement situations. All you can do is file for a hearing to determine fault if there is reason to do so. For reasons outlined above I would not become overly concerned if you are not considered at fault.