Florida Injury Attorney Blog

Four employees of the Georgia Department of Driver's Services were indicted on federal criminal charges of identity theft and conspiracy to commit fraud for issuing false driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and issuing commercial driver's licenses (CDL's) to themselves and one other person, according to an article in the Atlanta paper.  A CDL is the special driver's license a person needs before he/she can drive a semi truck or commercial bus professionally.  Applicants must show that they know how to operate a semi truck or bus and have an understanding of the rules and regulations governing commercial truck and bus drivers and their vehicles. 

The four employees allegedly made up scores for the CDL tests and recorded them into the system allowing them to receive the CDL's.  In 2007, they went on to obtain jobs as bus drivers for MARTA, which is the public transportation system in the Atlanta area.

Semi truck drivers who are driving while fatigued are a dangerous problem that has led to numerous injury and fatal accidents.  As a result, the federal government has issued regulations that address the number of hours a semi truck driver can drive and/or be on-duty before he/she has to take time off.  The idea is that, based on scientific, medical and other evidence of the effects of fatigue on driving, after a certain number of hours of driving and/or working, a semi truck driver will likely become tired to the extent it becomes dangerous for her/him to continue driving. 

The government has made several attempts to set these hours of service regulations in a way that everyone finds acceptable.  Recently, the federal government has decided that the current hours of service will become the final rule.  In general, the rule provides that a semi truck driver is limited to 11 hours of driving time or 14 hours of on-duty time before he/she has to take a break of 10 hours or more.  It is the intention of these regulations that semi truck drivers will not drive while fatigued and will take the necessary breaks to ensure that they are rested and alert when driving.  Of course, enforcement of the rule often depends on a semi truck's and trucking company's inclination to accurately document driving hours and on-duty time in the log book.  The failure of a semi truck driver to maintain accurate log books often defeats the purpose of the hours of service rule and results in serious injury accidents caused by fatigued semi truck drivers.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is focusing on drinking and driving, particularly drinking and driving by teenagers.  Recent statistics show that of the approximately 40,000 deaths from traffic accidents each year, about 40% of the accidents involve alcohol.  The NTSB issues recommendations to reduce the number of accidents each year, particularly those involving alcohol.  Recently, the idea of reducing the drinking age has been in the news.  However, according to the NTSB, reducing the drinking age from 21 would increase alcohol consumption and the number of alcohol related fatal accidents involving underage drivers.  The NTSB points to studies that suggest that raising the drinking age would reduce alcohol consumption by young drivers as well as the number of deaths and injuries caused by alcohol related motor vehicle accidents.

When a semi truck driver causes an accident that results in an injury or death to another person, that driver is required to take drug and alcohol tests as soon as practicable after the accident.  This is a fairly informal process whereby the driver is supposed to go to a local drug testing facility and request the tests.  If the results are positive, trucking companies are supposed to discipline the driver accordingly, and plaintiff's lawyers for the injured party or deceased family will obtain those results and use them against the semi truck driver in any lawsuit that follows from the accident.

It is not uncommon for the the ensuing drug and alcohol tests to be unreliable for a variety of reasons, one of which is that the semi truck driver, who obviously has time to prepare for the drug and alcohol tests, may obtain and submit a clean sample from someone else. 

The Department of Transportation, which regulates the trucking industry, recently enacted regulations which would require a semi truck driver to participate in the urine sample process under observation.  However, several companies filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C.to prevent these observed urine collections.  The court has initially ruled that there will be no observed urine collections under the regulations until the court has had more time to evaluate the issues and make its final determination.  So, in the meantime, even where there is evidence or suspicion of urine tampering, semi truck drivers who have caused accidents do not yet have to submit to drug and alcohol urine tests under observation.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a federal agency that investigates transportation related accidents and promotes transportation safety.  That purpose includes investigating the causes of fatal and injury accidents involving semi trucks and recommending measures that can help prevent such accidents.  The NTSB recently issued a report recommending that all semi trucks have on-board electronic data recorders that can accurately record certain information about the semi truck such as hours of service and characteristics of a vehicle crash such as speed and braking.  Regarding the hours of service issue, it is well known in the trucking industry that semi truck drivers who are fatigued because they have driven too many hours without a break are often unsafe and involved in serious accidents.  Federal regulations exist that limit the number of hours a semi truck driver can legally drive before he/she needs to take a break.  Part of the problem is that it is difficult for a law enforcement officer or inspector to determine how many hours a particular semi truck driver has been driving at any given time.  Semi truck drivers are required to keep driver's logs which document the time that driver has been driving, was otherwise on-duty or was off-duty.  However, these records are only required to be made manually by the driver and are often either ignored or falsified with no recourse. 

Requiring semi trucks to have on-board electronic recording devices would give law enforcement, as well as plaintiffs' lawyers for those people injured in an accident caused by a semi truck driver, an objective means of determining if a semi truck driver was driving over hours (and likely fatigued) as well as other information about the accident.  As the NTSB notes, the current regulations dealing with hours of service for semi truck drivers do not include the necessary incentives to ensure that semi truck drivers keep accurate driving records and follow the regulations.  Accidents caused by fatigued semi truck drivers on the highways are often the result.