Personal Injury Law

Data recorders will reduce fatal Illinois trucking accidents

By Kris Briggs

Electronic on-board recorders could help reduce Chicago trucking accidents by getting fatigued truckers off the road.

Required installation of electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) for interstate commercial truck and bus companies, will be used to monitor hours-of-service (HOS) compliance by their driver's. The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) made the long-overdue proposal earlier this month.

Our Illinois personal injury lawyers know that commercial truck drivers that stay behind the wheel while they are tired are a danger to all motorists.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2008 revealed 50,430 vehicles were involved in fatal crashes, a little over 8% involved large trucks. In Illinois just under 10% of vehicles involved in fatal crashes were large trucks.

Commercial vehicle drivers currently use hand-written log books, toll receipts and other "proof" to document hours of service. The antiquated system is ripe for abuse. The EOBRs are simply a tamper proof record keeping system. Driving time is tracked by the integrated GPS in the device automatically.

"We cannot protect our roadways when commercial truck and bus companies exceed hours-of-service rules," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "This proposal would make our roads safer by ensuring that carriers traveling across state lines are using EOBRs to track the hours their drivers spend behind the wheel."

Roughly 500,000 carriers will be affected by the proposed rule. Several carriers have already embraced this new technology including: Knight Transportation, Maverick USA, J.B. Hunt and Schneider National.

Short haul truckers that use timecards to document hours of service would not be required to use electronic on-board recorders. The proposal affects carriers that at present use log books.
Carriers could face fines up to $11,000 per offense for violating the EOBR requirement.

"This proposal is an important step in our efforts to raise the safety bar for commercial carriers and drivers," said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. "We believe broader use of EOBRs would give carriers and drivers an effective tool to strengthen their HOS compliance."

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Law Blog on February 28, 2011 (boomark / email).