This article describes attempts to improve states rates of reporting bus and truck crash statistics. States are required to report truck and bus crashes meeting specific criteria to the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) in order to evaluate the safety of companies using buses and trucks, but not all qualifying crashes are reported. In order to be certain of the reliability of reports to MCMIS, the University of Michigan's Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics (CNTBS) assesses the level of accuracy and completeness of each state’s reports. CNTBS independently receives a complete set of crash data from states and then determines which crashes should have been reported to MCMIS, and then tries to come up with methods to increase accurate reporting. The article summarizes some of the reporting problems CNTBS has seen thus far, as well as trends in reporting. The article notes some of the reporting improvements CNTBS has promoted, as well as some best practices to encourage data accuracy in MCMIS.
Abstract