Safety Groups Believe Hours of Service Regs for Truck Drivers Are Unsafe and Will Lead to Serious Injury Accidents
How many hours a semi truck driver has been driving and otherwise working and how fatigued he/she is as a result is a major safety issue in the trucking industry and one that is seriously regulated to try and reduce the number of serious accidents involving semi trucks that cause serious injuries and deaths. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the governmental agency charged with regulating truck drivers and companies to make sure they are operating as safely as possible and minimizing serious accidents.
In order to address the problem with fatigued semi truck drivers causing accidents, the FMCSA has issued various rules mandating the number of hours a semi truck driver can drive and otherwise be on duty before he/she has to take a break. These are referred to as hours of service regulations. The FMCSA recently issued a final rule addressing hours of service. It was discussed on this blog here. One aspect of the rule provides that a semi truck driver can drive for 11 straight hours before he/she must take a break for at least 10 hours.
Eleven consecutive hours is a long time to be driving while constantly staying alert and maintaining the ability to make quick reactions, particularly when truck drivers are often driving late at night, coming down from a caffeine rush or are in less than ideal health. Several safety groups have petitioned the government to change this rule because they consider these hours of service too burdensome on drivers which is likely to result in unsafe semi truck drivers and more serious injury and fatal traffic accidents. The safety groups have threatened to sue the government to change the hours of service regulations to make them more consistent with the eight hour workdays that are characteristic of many other industries' job requirements, particularly those with such safety-sensitive functions.
