Fried Goldberg LLC Says Safety Policies Must Reflect How Most Serious Collisions Really Happen
A new challenge to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s inspection decal policy is sparking debate over how federal and state agencies define safety on the nation’s highways. In a recent policy request filed with CVSA, Alabama law enforcement officer Harold Kenneth Davis warned that the current three-month inspection “free pass” tied to windshield decals may actually be working against crash-prevention efforts instead of supporting them.
According to coverage by FreightWaves, Davis pointed out that once a truck passes a Level I inspection with no critical vehicle defects, the vehicle can receive a decal and avoid reinspection for up to 90 days, even if the driver is later arrested for DUI, caught with multiple false hours-of-service logs, or linked to serious offenses such as human trafficking. He argued that a policy built entirely around mechanical condition ignores what the data has been saying for years about how most truck accidents occur.
Driver Behavior Versus Mechanical Defects
Research cited in the request notes that roughly 80 to 90 percent of crashes are tied to driver-related factors, while only a small percentage can be traced directly to vehicle defects. Yet the decal policy looks only at whether the truck itself passes inspection on a given day, not whether the person behind the wheel or the carrier’s broader safety practices present an ongoing risk.
Attorneys at Fried Goldberg LLC in Atlanta, who represent truck crash victims nationwide, say that split creates a blind spot that can have serious consequences on the road.
“When enforcement tools treat a truck as ‘good to go’ for months at a time without accounting for driver fitness or carrier conduct, families pay the price when something goes wrong,” attorney Joe Fried said. “A system that rewards clean equipment but overlooks dangerous behavior does not match what we see in serious truck wreck cases.”
Calls For A More Complete Safety Picture
Davis also raised concerns about inconsistent use of decals across jurisdictions, noting that some inspectors skip decals altogether because of limited supply or discomfort applying a sticker when minor violations are present but not classified as “critical vehicle inspection items.” That inconsistency, he argued, undermines uniform enforcement and creates confusion about what a decal really represents.
Attorney Michael Goldberg says that most people would assume visible safety markings mean a carrier is doing everything right, when in reality those signals may cover only a narrow slice of risk.
“A decal on a windshield should not give anyone a false sense of security,” Goldberg said. “If the policy doesn’t account for driver history, log manipulation, or patterns of unsafe decision-making, it isn’t giving the public the protection they think they have.”
Fried Goldberg LLC says any updated approach to inspection policies should better align with the real causes of catastrophic truck crashes by giving enforcement agencies the flexibility to weigh driver behavior, carrier practices, and mechanical condition together. The firm believes crash survivors and grieving families deserve a safety framework that looks beyond a single clean inspection and focuses on stopping preventable collisions before they happen.
About Fried Goldberg LLC
Based in Atlanta and serving victims nationwide, Fried Goldberg LLC is one of the preeminent trucking accident law firms in the United States. The firm has recovered over $1 billion for its clients, including many 7- and 8-figure verdicts and settlements. For more information, visit www.friedgoldberg.com.
