WASHINGTON During the past 15 years, the three-strikes-youre-out rule has become a key aspect of the U.S. criminal justice system.

The policy generally holds that repeat offenders are given mandatory life sentences when convicted of committing particularly egregious crimes like kidnapping and aggravated assault.

The concept has been adapted and adopted by other government units and applied to all sorts of regulatory requirements and enforcement actions, including by the Federal Motorcoach Safety Administration.

Now, the FMCSA has thrown out its three-strikes policy for assessing maximum fines for schlocky motor carriers found to have committed a pattern of violations of "critical or acute" safety rules and gone to a two-strikes-and- you-get-a-big-fine policy.

The change went into effect April 1.

The Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, which created the FMCSA, mandated the agency assess maximum civil penalties on anyone who committed a "pattern of violations" of important safety regulations, or to have "previously committed the same or a related violation" of critical regulations.

Five years later, the agency clarified its enforcement policy by adopting a three-strikes rule that defined both the "pattern of violations," and "previously committed the same or related violation," as three cases of violations occurring within the previous six years.

Within a year or two of adopting that policy, the agency began coming under fire from members of Congress and others who contended its enforcement efforts were too weak. Congress ordered the Government Accountability Office to examine the agencys enforcement practices.

In 2007, the GAO issued a report that said the FMCSA three-strikes policy had failed to assess maximum penalties against serious safety-rules violators and hadnt achieved the 1999 laws intent that maximum penalties be imposed when there had been two distinct patterns of violations or repeat violations.

The GAO recommended the FMCSA revise its policy.

A year earlier, the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General had issued a similar recommendation.

Now, 20 months after the GAO report and three years after the USDOT Inspector General recommendation, the agency has revised its policy and issued a two-strikes rule.

So, when the agency discovers two or more critical and/or acute violations in each of three or more different regulatory parts it can mete out maximum fines.

A rogue carrier will be subject to the maximum fines when the pattern of critical or acute violations is discovered after the operator has had "previous contact" with the FMCSA, a state motor carrier safety enforcement agency, or other FMCSA-designated representative acting on behalf of FMCSA.

This contact can be through a New Entrant Safety Audit, Pre-Authorization Safety Audit, Expedited Action Letter, Compliance Review, Notice of Violation, Notice of Claim, Warning Letter or other "significant documented contact reasonably likely to have alerted the motor carrier to FMCSA's regulatory and enforcement jurisdiction," says the agency

However, a roadside inspection, alone, will not be considered a "previous contact" for the purpose of subjecting a carrier to the tougher revised rule.