WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) and its affiliate organization, the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association (HDMA), have announced strong support for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Act of 2011 (S. 1233), introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).
The legislation provides a tax credit for commercial vehicle owners to install specific safety technology and is identical to its House companion (H.R. 1706), which was introduced by Reps. Geoff Davis (R-Ky.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) earlier this year.
Specifically, the bill:
1) provides a tax credit equal to 50 percent of the cost of a qualified system, up to $1,500;
2) allows a total credit of up to $3,500 per vehicle;
3) limits the qualifying taxpayer to a maximum credit of $350,000 per taxable year; and
4) extends credit eligibility for the purchase of school buses, intercity buses and vehicles used in commerce weighing more than 26,000 lbs.
The covered safety technologies are brake stroke monitoring systems, stability control systems, lane departure warning systems and collision warning or mitigation systems.
“Increasing the deployment of the technologies in this bill will help reduce accidents and fatalities on our nation’s highways and improve commercial vehicle safety,” said Bob McKenna, MEMA’s president and CEO. “We applaud Sen. Stabenow and Reps. Davis and Thompson for their leadership and effort in addressing this important issue.”
“Ensuring the safety of the motoring public is a high priority for our members,” added Tim Kraus, HDMA’s president and chief operating officer. “This legislation allows the industry to address the prevalent causes of accidents, as identified by the 2006 Large Truck Crash Causation Study, in an expeditious manner.”
According to the Department of Transportation, more than 3,600 people were killed and more than 75,000 were injured on our nation’s highways in accidents involving heavy duty vehicles in 2009. S. 1233 supports market-ready technologies that have been proven to help prevent commercial motor vehicle crashes or to mitigate the severity of the crash, the association says.
The list of eligible technologies was carefully crafted with the support and assistance of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and is designed to target the causes of approximately 60 percent of commercial motor vehicle accidents, as identified in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Large Truck Crash Causation Study.
