ARLINGTON, Va. — If the American government needs even more proof that there’s no need to tinker with the current hours-of-service rules, it needs to look no further than its own data.

President and CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) Bill Graves says that just-released crash statistics should be enough to convince the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to call off proposed changes to the rules.

Not only that but the new data comes right from Obama’s own administration.

Here, according to a statement released by the ATA, is what Graves is telling the FMCSA:

"Since FMCSA began its effort to revise these rules, we have said the current rules are working. The Obama Administration’s own data now supports that belief.

"Since the agency [FMCSA] first changed the hours rules in 2004, the truck-involved fatality rate has dropped by 36% — nearly twice as fast as the overall fatality rate on our highways –- and that’s not a coincidence: the current rules are working.

"In fact, the 2004 hours-of-service rule change is the one and only significant truck safety regulatory improvement made by FMCSA between 2004 and 2009.

"FMCSA’s own CSA program data shows a strong correlation between compliance with the existing hours-of-service rules and trucking company safety performance.”

In 2009, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the truck-involved fatality rate fell to 1.17 per 100 million miles traveled. The decline shows that trucking has achieved parity with the overall highway fatality rate, due in part to these rules.