subject: Traffic Tickets, CSA Scores And Pennsylvania Trucking Law [print this page] Traffic Tickets, CSA Scores And Pennsylvania Trucking Law
There is much confusion surrounding the role and relationship of traffic tickets to CSA scores.As you know, CSA 2010 re-engineers the existing enforcement and compliance process to provide improved safety rule visibility pertaining to commercial motor vehicle carriers and drivers. The CSA goal is to provide earlier intervention and improved enforcement and compliance. The new CSA 2010 Operational Model has three major components including measurement, evaluation and intervention. This article reviews the relationship between CSA 2010 and traffic tickets as they relate to CSA scores.
Let's start with the basics in relation to traffic tickets and CSA scores. Only traffic tickets in conjunction with a roadside inspection will result in CSA points. A ticket in your car does not count. A ticket in your commercial motor vehicle without a roadside inspection does not count. If it is not written up on the roadside, it simply does not count.
Think of it this way, tickets are reported to the state motor vehicle department. They are applied to a driver's MVR. Roadside inspections are ultimately reported to the federal government. These reports are the basis for your CSA score. If a roadside inspection report also includes a violation for which a ticket was issued, CSA points will result.
Tickets are challenged through the judicial process. If you are found not guilty or the ticket is dismissed, it comes off of your MVR.However, for a ticket issued in conjunction with a roadside, the outcome of the hearing will NOT remove the points from your CSA score. You must submit a challenge via Data-Q to remove the CSA points. This challenge can be submitted by going to https://dataqs.fmcsa.gov/.
Data-Q is the appeal process for CSA points. Drivers or companies may submit challenges to any roadside violation via Data-Q, whether or not a ticket was issued.Further, just because you win an appeal on your traffic ticket does not necessitate that you will be successful on the subsequent Data-Q. You must independently support your Data-Q appeal, regardless of the outcome of the ticket. In fact, you do not need to challenge and win the ticket to succeed in the Data-Q. They are separate and distinct.
State your support for your Data-Q challenge. Set out the basis why the roadside violation should be removed in a way that a person reviewing the request can understand and be persuaded by the correctness of your challenge. Just because you say it does not make it sosupport your position with facts and information. Each state has an office that reviews the Data-Q challenges. Each may have its own rules.As a trucking litigation attorney in Pennsylvania, I can validate that in Pennsylvania, a driver must submit a Data-Q appeal within 30 days of the roadside while a trucking company has a full year.
