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Truckers'Database Under Fire
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is suing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration alleging that the federal regulator's database of driver information lacks assurance of accuracy and a functioning process for dispute resolution.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, OOIDA says that the FMCSA refused to remove from the database information about citations issued to three association members that were eventually challenged in court and dismissed.
The case of a fourth OOIDA member included in the suit is pending.
As a result of the refusal to remove the citations from the database, the suit claims the agency fails to comply with the Fair Credit Repoting Act, with the Privacy Act and with mandates governing agency action contained in the previous highway bill known as SAFETEA-LU.
Data the agency collects from roadside inspections and from crash reports are stored in the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), and is used to populate reports such as those obtained through the Pre-Employment Screening Program.
"Inspection reports submitted by state law enforcement officers to the MCMIS system contain data labeled and reported by MCMIS as "violations" of safety statutes and/or regulations even when: (a) the driver has not been given a citation alleging violation of state law; (b) there has been no judicial determination of guilt or non-guilt where a citation has been issued; or (c) there has been a judicial determination in favor of the driver resulting in the dismissal of charges or a verdict or determination of not guilty," the lawsuit reads.
When FMCSA receives a DataQ challenge, it routes the challenge containing the alleged violations back to the state where the inspection report originated. According to the lawsuit, this is the agency's way of delegating the responsibility of accurate and complete data to the states.
The lawsuit asks the court to order FMCSA to purge all data for which there has not been a judicial determination of guilt; purge all reports where a court has dismissed or ruled the driver not guilty; purge all reports that are not "serious driver-related violation(s)"; enjoin the agency from distributing information without any reference to a dispute and a summary of the dispute; and enjoin the agency from distributing false, inaccurate, incomplete or misleading inspection reports.
The suit also notes facts about the case of each driver.
It says that member Brian E. Kelley was stopped on or about Dec. 7, 2010, in Texas and issued a citation alleging that he had violated a Texas criminal statute by "driving a commercial motor vehicle with a detectable amount of alcohol."
Kelley contested the citation in the Walker County, Texas, Justice Court and in response to a motion by the district attorney, the court dismissed all charges against Kelley.
The suit says that on or about May 19, 2010, OOIDA member Robert Lohmeier was issued a citation in Arizona for allegedly failing to wear a seatbelt and for violations of the Hours of Service regulations.
On Oct. 14, 2010, Lohmeier appeared before the Winslow, Ariz., Justice City Court in Navajo County, Ariz., to contest the May 19, 2010, citations and the court dismissed all of the charges against him
The suit also says that on or about March 22, 1020, OOIDA member Klint L. Mowrer was issued a citation for violation of the Maryland Criminal Code for "fail[ing] to comply with local law; rear drag link has more than 1/8-inch play by hand pressure."
Mowrer contested the citation in the District Court of Maryland for Garrett County where the court entered a verdict of ?not guilty? and dismissed the charge against Mowrer.
In each case, the suit says the driver filed a DataQ challenge following the ruling and in each case the challenge was denied.
The case of the fourth OOIDA member, J. Mark Moody, is still contested.
The suit says that Moody was the subject of an inspection in Iowa where he told the inspecting officer that he was not feeling well.
Moody was issued two citations, one for his record-of-duty status not being current and a second for driving while ill or fatigued. He was given citations.
Moody is currently contesting the allegations and a criminal proceeding is currently pending against him at the Jasper County Courthouse in Newton, Iowa.
The suit also notes correspondence between OOIDA President Jim Johnston and FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro concerning the DataQ challenges.
It says that on or about July 8, 2011, Johnston wrote to Ferro to specifically requested that the inspection reports challenged by Kelley, Lohmeier and Mowrer "be removed from all FMCSA databases."
After receiving no response from FMCSA, Johnston wrote again to Ferro on Nov. 18, 2011, saying that "for these drivers, the damage that this system has done is immediate and continuing. These drivers, and others like them, deserve immediate relief from being tagged by FMCSA with legally unsubstantiated and unproven violations of the safety rules."
Ferro replied by letter dated Feb. 17 of this year refusing to remove the reports of violations of law challenged by Kelley, Lohmeier and Mowrer, saying that she forwarded the DataQ challenges "to the FMCSA division administrators in the respective states for review."
In a letter dated May 29, 2012, Ferro wrote a second letter to Johnston reporting back the "findings" of the FMCSA division administrators regarding the DataQ challenges.
The suit says that according Ferro, the FMCSA division administrators from Maryland, Arizona and Texas reviewed the respective challenges and, in each case, the division administrator refused to remove the reported "violation" of law from the MCMIS database.
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