As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the US DOT's inspector general released a report to Congress criticizing the Transportation Department's Office of Motor Carriers, which is already under the spotlight for possible violations of agency lobbying restrictions in its close work with the trucking industry on legislative issues (see MTR #205).

In an attempt to boost safety oversight regarding trucks, the House Transportation Appropriations subcommittee held a hearing on legislation that would transfer oversight of the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration (who oversees road building) to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The transfer has been hotly debated by the trucking industry and truck safety advocates. The American Trucking Association urged the House panel to create a new, separate agency to oversee trucking.

The Transportation Department report states that in 1997, the last year for which statistics are available, 5,355 people died in accidents involving trucks, up 9% from 1995. The Inspector General also criticizes the Motor Carrier office of not "aggressively using the tools it has available" for cracking down on unsafe trucking firms, and rates nearly half the office's investigators and field supervisors as "poor" or "fair."