Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP)
Improving the safety of Nevada’s highways is the top priority of the Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol. The Highway Patrol has established the goal to reduce the Nevada large truck and bus related fatalities rate to 0.16 fatalities per 100 million Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by 2011, as averaged over the three preceding years. This equates to a 24 percent reduction from the base period of 2003-2005 average fatality rate of 0.21. This represents an estimated average of 7 lives saved each year in the State of Nevada.
To assist in achieving this goal, the DPS, Highway Patrol participates in the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP). This is a Federal grant program that provides financial assistance to States to reduce the number and severity of crashes and hazardous materials incidents involving commercial motor vehicles (CMV). The goal of the MCSAP is to reduce CMV-involved crashes, fatalities, and injuries through consistent, uniform, and effective CMV safety programs. Investing grant monies in appropriate safety programs increases the likelihood that safety defects, driver deficiencies, and unsafe motor carrier practices are detected and corrected before they become contributing factors to crashes. The MCSAP also sets forth the conditions for participation by States and local jurisdictions and promotes the adoption and uniform enforcement of safety rules, regulations, and standards compatible with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR’s) and Federal Hazardous Material Regulations (HMR’s)for both interstate and intrastate motor carriers and drivers.
Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan (CVSP)
Each State must meet certain conditions to qualify for Federal MCSAP funding. Among these conditions, States must prepare a document that outlines the State’s commercial motor vehicle safety objectives, strategies, activities and performance measures. This document is the annual Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan (CVSP).
The State’s CVSP must reflect a performance-based program and contain a number of elements, including a summary of the effectiveness of prior years’ activities, performance objectives, strategies to be employed to achieve performance objectives, quantifiable performance measures, a monitoring methodology, and a budget supporting CVSP activities which describes expenditures for personnel, equipment purchases and other eligible costs. Each State must perform according to their approved CVSP or risk cessation of Federal assistance. Nevada‘s most recent CVSP’s are accessible by the following links:
Resources