Personal Injury Law

Fatigued Truck Driver Regulations Endanger Public

Truck drivers are required by Federal Regulations to limit the amount of hours during which they can drive in one day. This regulation is enacted to attempt to prevent serious injury and death caused by fatigued truck drivers. This is a major problem in the United States. In spite of the dangers posed by fatigued drivers, the trucking industry has been pushing for relaxed standards. Obviously more hours driven equal more money earned. The Bush administration has been all too eager to appease the trucking industry.

On Tuesday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced its final hours of service rule, and they remain unchanged from the "interim" rule the trucking industry has been working under.

Truck drivers are limited to driving for only 11 hours and working for no more than 14 hours each day. The agency said it consulted with scientific and medical researchers, reviewed existing fatigue research and worked with organizations like the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies and the National Institute for Occupational Safety in setting the final rules. FMCSA Administrator John Hill, claims the final rule is based on an exhaustive scientific review and designed to ensure truck drivers get the necessary rest to perform safe operations and the quality of life they deserve.

The rule will become effective Jan. 19, 2009, the day before the Bush administration leaves office. Hill said he was confident the final rule would stand up to a court challenge because the agency had appropriately addressed all concerns raised by the courts.

The consumer protection group Public Citizen has been fighting the rule in court since it was first announced in 2005. In July 2007, a federal court remanded the Hours of Service rules to FMCSA, ruling that the agency must provide better explanations of its justifications for adopting the 11-hour drive time and 34-hour restart provisions of the rule. In December, FMCSA announced that it was keeping the 11-hour and the 34-hour provisions in an Interim Final Rule. In January, a federal appeals court denied Public Citizen's request to invalidate the Interim Final Rule.

Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook issued a statement denouncing the rule, saying, "FMCSA's rule, which ignores mountains of safety research, authorizes the exact same 11-hours of driving and 34-hour restart provisions of rules past - rules that the court deemed were inadequate. Under the rule, drivers may continue to log a physically and mentally demanding 77 hours behind the wheel in a seven-day period, take a mere 34 hours off, then hit the road to do it all over. In addition, drivers can be required to work 14 hours a day, which includes loading and unloading cargo. The rule also fails to require electronic on-board recorders that are essential to assure effective enforcement of the rule."

Full post as published by Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog on November 21, 2008 (boomark / email).