Expanding the Oregon Motor Carrier Safety Action Plan: Best Return on Investment

Hernandez, Salvador; Anderson, Jason C.; Velasquez, Brianna; Unnikrishnan, Avinash; Jessup, Eric L. · 2022 · ROSA P / Oregon. Dept. of Transportation. Research Section

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Summary

This study addresses the need to expand the Oregon Motor Carrier Safety Action Plan (OMCSAP), a pilot program designed to reduce truck driver-at-fault crashes through increased law enforcement. Motivated by a significant rise in truck-related fatalities in Oregon between 2014 and 2015, the research aims to identify the optimal level of enforcement effort and determine which corridors offer the best return on investment for program expansion. The primary objective is to develop an implementation methodology that utilizes economic benefit/cost analyses and site-specific identification models to allocate limited state funds effectively. The researchers employed a multi-step analytical approach using data from 2013 to 2019. First, they conducted a descriptive analysis of inspection data, violation records, and Oregon crash data to characterize truck-at-fault incidents. Second, they assessed the safety performance of the existing OMCSAP pilot by generating a safety performance function and estimating a crash modification factor (CMF) using Empirical Bayes methods and Poisson models. Third, a benefit/cost analysis was performed on several candidate highway segments, incorporating crash costs based on severity, travel delays, emissions, and excess fuel burn, alongside the costs of inspections. Finally, a survey was administered to Oregon law enforcement agencies to gauge their willingness to adopt the program and their current training status for conducting Level 2 commercial motor vehicle inspections. The findings indicate that the OMCSAP program had a substantial impact on reducing truck driver-at-fault crashes. The safety performance analysis confirmed that increased enforcement significantly lowers crash frequency. Using the estimated CMF and cost data, the benefit/cost analysis identified three specific highway segments as viable candidates for program expansion, demonstrating positive economic returns. The descriptive analysis highlighted that leading causes of truck-at-fault crashes include following too closely, improper lane changes, and failure to maintain lane position. The law enforcement survey revealed varying levels of readiness among agencies, with some lacking trained officers but expressing willingness to participate if state funding were provided. The significance of this research lies in providing a data-driven framework for expanding safety enforcement programs. By quantifying the safety benefits and economic costs of enforcement, the study enables the Oregon Department of Transportation to prioritize corridors that maximize crash reduction per dollar spent. The identification of specific viable segments and the assessment of law enforcement capacity offer actionable recommendations for scaling the OMCSAP statewide. This approach ensures that limited resources are directed toward interventions with the highest proven efficacy, contributing to a safer roadway environment for all users.

Key finding

The Oregon Motor Carrier Safety Action Plan substantially reduced truck driver-at-fault crashes, and a benefit-cost analysis identified three specific highway segments as viable candidates for program expansion.

Methodology

dataset

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• incidence prevalence
• demographic disparities
• regulatory evaluation
• comparative international
• induced exposure

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource