Not-Preventable Crashes: What CPDP Removes

CPDP is not a way to delete a crash from your record

FMCSA's Crash Preventability Determination Program reviews specific crash types and, when it finds a crash Not Preventable, removes that crash from the calculation of the Crash Indicator BASIC. The agency's own page says the crash is still listed on the website. Not Preventable determinations are also noted in the Pre-Employment Screening Program. Listed and noted are not deleted.

The police report still exists. A civil suit still exists. A shipper who asks for your crash list can still be told the truth. The program changes one math problem inside SMS. Carriers who tell a customer the crash is gone are describing a result the program does not give.

Crashes on or after December 1, 2024, use the eligibility list below. Crashes before that date use the previous standards. FMCSA cannot review a crash older than 5 years. If the crash is outside the window, do not file and hope. If it is inside the window but not an eligible type, a rear-end story you wish were true will not create eligibility.

Which crash types are eligible

FMCSA's list for crashes on or after December 1, 2024, is twenty-one types. Paste it. Do not shorten it to not my fault.

1. CMV was struck in the rear by a motorist.
2. CMV was struck on the side at the rear by a motorist.
3. CMV was struck on the side by a motorist operating in the same direction as the CMV.
4. CMV was struck because another motorist was driving in the wrong direction.
5. CMV was struck because another motorist was making a U-turn or illegal turn.
6. CMV was struck while legally stopped at a traffic control device or parked, including while the vehicle was unattended.
7. CMV was struck because another motorist did not stop or slow in traffic.
8. CMV was struck because another motorist failed to stop at a traffic control device.
9. CMV was struck because another individual was under the influence, according to the legal standard of the jurisdiction where the crash occurred.
10. CMV was struck because another motorist experienced a medical issue which contributed to the crash.
11. CMV was struck because another motorist fell asleep.
12. CMV was struck because another motorist was distracted, for example by a phone, a GPS, or passengers.
13. CMV was struck by cargo or equipment from another vehicle, or by debris.
14. CMV crash was the result of an infrastructure failure.
15. CMV struck an animal.
16. CMV crash involving a suicide death or a suicide attempt.
17. CMV was struck because another motorist was entering the roadway from a private driveway or parking lot.
18. CMV was struck because another motorist lost control of the vehicle.
19. CMV was involved in a crash with a non-motorist.
20. CMV was involved in a crash type that seldom occurs and does not meet another eligible type, such as being struck by an airplane or a skydiver.
21. Any other crash involving a CMV where a video demonstrates the sequence of events.

A rear-end is type 1. It is eligible to be submitted. It is not automatically Not Preventable. Video, the police report, and the sequence still get reviewed. Do not promise a driver that any rear-end comes off.

Not Preventable versus Preventable versus Undecided

Three results matter. Not Preventable removes the crash from the Crash Indicator calculation. Preventable leaves it in the math. Undecided leaves it in the math. A submission that is found ineligible never becomes one of those three. An eligible submission that lacks documents can stall or lose.

Read the result when it posts. Do not tell dispatch the crash is off the indicator because you uploaded a report last week. The finding is the finding. Until it says Not Preventable, the crash still counts in that BASIC the way it did before.

What leaves the Crash Indicator math

The Crash Indicator uses crashes in its calculation. A Not Preventable determination takes that crash out of the calculation. Other BASICs are not erased by a crash review. An inspection from the same day, if there was one, is a different record. Hours violations and vehicle violations stay where they are.

The crash remains visible as a listed crash with the determination noted. A broker who looks only at a count of crashes may still see it. Explain the determination with the FMCSA result, not with a private story. SMS percentiles are comparisons. Removing one crash from the math can change a percentile. It might not, if other crashes remain. This page will not predict your new number.

How the request is filed

Submit a Request for Data Review through DataQs. FMCSA says to include the police accident report and other supporting documents, photos, or videos. The request has to match the eligible type you are claiming. A narrative that does not identify the type makes the reviewer hunt. Name the type by the list.

This is not the same request as a DataQs challenge to a bad inspection citation. If the inspection line is wrong, use the DataQs challenge process and pick that form. If the crash is eligible and you want a preventability review, use the crash request. Filing the wrong request delays both. You may do both when both are true. Do not use one to stand in for the other.

Keep a copy of what you uploaded and the RDR number. A crash older than five years will not be reviewed. A crash before December 1, 2024, has to be checked against the older eligibility list, not this one.

What it does not do for insurance or lawsuits

Insurance underwriters can still see the crash. Do not tell the reader a Not Preventable flag lowers the premium. Any change in price is the underwriter's decision and is not a figure this page will invent. Send them the determination if they ask. Do not send them a promise.

A lawsuit uses the police report, the witnesses, and the law of the state. SMS is not the court. A Not Preventable finding is not a judgment that you owe nothing, and a Preventable finding is not a judgment that you owe everything. Keep the claim file separate from the DataQs file.

The submitter guide on FMCSA's CPDP page is the instruction for the upload. This article is the eligibility list and the limit on what a win changes. Read both before you tell a driver the crash will disappear.

A video helps most on type 21, which exists only when a video shows the sequence, and it helps on the other types when the police report is thin. Do not edit the video. Submit what the camera recorded. A clip that starts after the impact is weaker than a clip that shows the approach. If you have no video, you can still submit an eligible type that does not require one. Type 21 is the type that does.

Assign one person to watch the result. A Not Preventable finding that nobody downloads will not be in the customer packet when a broker asks why the crash still appears. Download the determination, file it with the crash, and train the person who answers broker calls to say listed, Not Preventable in the Crash Indicator, not deleted. Those words match the program. Deleted does not.

If the crash also produced an inspection, handle the inspection on its own DataQs path when a line is wrong, and handle the crash on the CPDP path when the type is eligible. Two documents, two requests, one folder. Mixing them is how a citation challenge gets rejected for not being a crash review, and how a crash review never answers the bad inspection line.

Frequently Asked Questions