Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

A St. Louis truck driving school that allegedly engaged in a bribing and testing scheme to ensure their students passed the commercial driving test, trial began on Monday.

Mustafa Redzic, the owner of Bosna Driving School, allegedly promised his students -- many of whom were Bosnian immigrants -- that they’d be able to obtain a commercial drivers license in a few days rather than several weeks, that their ability to read English would not be a problem and even that a lack of driving skill wouldn’t stand in the way.

Prosecutors claim that in return for the $3,000 tuition, Redzic drove his students to his school and that he bribed a private licensing facility, Sikeston-based Commercial Drivers Training Academy, to ensure the students passed the written and driving portions of the test. Nearly $2 million and hundreds of students were allegedly involved.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“Redzic himself grew worried about some students, he later told investigators – students he knew were hazards behind the wheel of what he called an ‘80,000 pound bullet.’”

The charges stem from a 2004 investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. The task force was looking for terrorists who might turn trucks hauling hazardous materials into bombs. What they uncovered – allegedly unqualified drivers allowed to barrel down the highway in an 18-wheeler – is also deadly problem. But it isn’t an isolated one.

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes, a 2002 report by the U.S. Transportation Department warned that state and federal regulations were not enough to protect against the “alarming threat” posed by people who obtained fake truck driver licenses.

Because of the bribery scandals, Missouri ordered 2,500 commercial license holders to retake the test. The state legislature has also moved to end the practice of allowing private facilities to administer the commercial driving test.

If you or a loved one has been injured or a family member has been killed in a collision with a large truck, we urge you to contact The Lowe Law Firm. Our trucking-accident attorneys will find out whether the truck driver, trucking company, or trailer owner is responsible for the accident. If so, we will then seek compensation for future and other related medical expenses, future and other affected wages, pain and suffering, disability and/or other related damages.

An initial free consultation with The Lowe Law Firm attorneys for victims of trucking or truck related accidents is available. Appointments can take place at our office, at the hospital, or in the privacy of your home.

Contact The Lowe Law Firm Missouri/Illinois trucking-accident lawyers online or by calling 877-678-3400.

Visit our Truck-Accident Information Center.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced on Feb. 15, the that the public comment period on truck drivers' hours-of-service interim final rule was extended until March 17, 2008.

The interim rule would allow trucking companies and their drivers up to 11 hours of driving time within a 14-hour, non-extendable window from the start of the work day, followed by 10 consecutive off-duty hours.

The interim rule replaced one that was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On July 16, the court tossed out a similar rule that would have increased driving time from ten hours to eleven hours with an optional 34-hour restart provision. As I noted on Feb. 10, this new rule should also be rejected.

If you or a loved one has been injured or a family member has been killed in a collision with a large truck, we urge you to contact The Lowe Law Firm. Our trucking-accident attorneys will find out whether the truck driver, trucking company, or trailer owner is responsible for the accident. If so, we will then seek compensation for future and other related medical expenses, future and other affected wages, pain and suffering, disability and/or other related damages.

An initial free consultation with The Lowe Law Firm attorneys for victims of trucking or truck related accidents is available. Appointments can take place at our office, at the hospital, or in the privacy of your home.

Contact The Lowe Law Firm Missouri/Illinois trucking-accident lawyers online or by calling 877-678-3400.

Visit our Truck-Accident Information Center.

The number of hours a truck driver in interstate commerce can drive is governed by the federal hours of service regulations. The comment period on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s interim rule on the hours-of-service regulation will end on Feb. 15. The interim rule went into effect on Dec. 27. It permits 11 hours of driving with an optional 34-hour restart provision.

The interim rule replaced one that was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On July 16, the court tossed out a similar rule that would have increased driving time from ten hours to eleven hours with an optional 34-hour restart provision.

The latest proposed rule should also be rejected. Several studies have shown that trucking accidents spike between the tenth and eleventh hours of driving. Tired drivers are a major cause of trucking accidents in this country. Instead of protecting the public, this rule serves only to lengthen the driving day so that that trucking companies can make more money. Unfortunately, it is the innocent motorist involved in a truck-car collision who will wind up paying the highest price.

A federal rule proposed on Dec. 26 would force new interstate truck drivers to complete classroom and behind-the-wheel training before they’re allowed to receive a commercial license.

The proposal would require truck drivers to receive 120 hours of training, including 44 hours behind the wheel, from an accredited program before they would receive a license. The comment period ends on March 5.

Even though almost 5,000 people were killed in truck accidents in 2006 and 106,000 were injured, the American Trucking Association, the trucking industry’s lobbying group, opposes the rule, Bloomberg News reports.

However, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association not only supports the rule, the organization believes it should be even more rigorous. Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the organization told Bloomberg News that under the current standards: “There is no training required whatsoever to drive a 40-ton vehicle.”

That concern is echoed by safety groups. Gerald Donaldson, senior research director for the nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, remarked in an interview with Bloomberg News:

“They get cousin Jake to show them how to operate the rig. Then they learn by doing.”

The push for more training is supported by the 1995 “Adequacy Report” that concluded truck drivers weren’t trained properly. In fact, only 9 percent of motor carriers offered sufficient training, the report indicated.

Because crashes involving tractor trailers are often deadly, and no motorist should have to share the road with an inexperienced driver trying to control an 18,000-pound vehicle, this rule should be viewed as the bare minimum for highway safety.

Truck accidents are frequently caused by speeding trucks. Forcing trucks to slow down, especially in Kansas City, St. Louis and rural highways in Missouri is the aim of one bill currently pending before the Missouri General Assembly.

Introduced by House Minority Leader Paul LeVota, D-Independence, the bill would require tractor trailers to drive ten miles below the posted speed limit on rural interstates, highways, in construction zones and on freeways passing through downtown Kansas City and St. Louis.

In an interview with Land Line Magazine, LeVota’s legislative director Josh Carroll explained that the bill “is an attempt to increase safety on our roads.”

In addition to putting the brakes on speeding trucks, House Bill 1563 also proposes to limit the amount of consecutive time any motorist can be behind the wheel of a vehicle to nine hours.

Speeding, tired truck drivers are dangerous. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, a fourth of the truck drivers involved in fatal collisions had been convicted of speeding and almost 17 percent had been involved in earlier collisions. In 2006, accidents involving large trucks claimed 130 lives in Missouri and 157 in Illinois. Even though this bill would make Missouri’s roads safer, I expect that trucking industry lobbyists will fight it.

A semitrailer truck that failed to slow down for an Illinois construction zone triggered a chain-reaction crash that killed at least three people in rural Illinois, the Rockford Register Star reports.

The accident occurred two days after Christmas on southbound Interstate Hwy. 39 in Lasalle County, Illinois. According to the Illinois State Police, an 18-wheeler approached a construction zone where cars were merging from two lanes into one. The semi didn’t slow down. According the news report, the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The big rig rammed into the back of one car, sending it into the median before rolling over. Unable to stop, the semitrailer then plowed into the back of a car driven by a retired Minnesota couple, Donald W. Rautio, 67, and his wife, Faye C. Rautio, 65. Their car slammed into a fourth car, driven by Caryn J. Casey, 21, which burst into flames. The 18-wheeler then caught fire. Three more vehicles, including a second truck, were swept up into the chain-reaction crash. The Rautios and Casey were killed.

Driver fatigue is a deadly problem. In the weeks to come, investigators will examine whether this tragedy could have been avoided. The Department of Transportation imposes strict regulations on the trucking industries. Truck drivers may not work more than 14 hours in a 24-hour period and then must have ten hours of rest before returning to the road. Both driving and sleep time must be recorded in the driver’s log box. If the log is falsified, a truck’s “black box” or GPS tracking systems may reveal the truth. These are all key pieces of evidence that will be reviewed to determine whether the driver violated DOT regulations when he got behind the wheel on December 27.

Big trucks will be banned from using the far left lane of Interstate 70 through St. Charles County, starting January 1, 2008.

The prohibition covers a six-mile stretch that begins at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters and ends at Zumbehl Road in St. Charles. It prevents 18-wheeler trucks weighing more than 24,000 pounds from using the far left lane except in emergency conditions or if other lanes are closed for construction.

In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rep. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, said, “Most people feel trucks are a menace and a danger to them on the highways. Anything we can do to curb the trucks and provide more rules and regulations for them, the better off we are.”

I agree. As someone who has represented the victims of reckless truck drivers, I have witnessed the lifetime of devastation, pain and suffering an 18-wheeler can inflict in just fractions of a second. This is Missouri’s first big truck ban. I hope the General Assembly will broaden the ban during the upcoming 2008 legislative session.

A tractor-trailer owned by Swift Transportation in April 2004 killing the driver of a Suburban when the truck driver drove 65 mph across three sets of rumble strips which were designed to warn of an approaching stop sign, and then ran the stop sign. Under Federal Regulations all truck drivers and trucking companies are required to keep a log of the number of hours the truck driver has driven to comply with the Federal Hours of Service Regulations. During the discovery phase of this case, the trucking company claimed it could not locate the driver logs .Under the rules of evidence call the adverse inference rule of evidence, this raised the inference that the driver was fatigued. Driver fatigue is the cause of many truck accidents

At trial, the truck driver did not have an explanation why he failed to slow down. The jury apparently apparently did not believe the trucking company regarding why it could not produce the driver logs, and it awarded $23.1 million in compensatory damages and $13.5 million in punitive damages.

This shows when selecting a personal injury lawyer who handles trucking accident cases, it pays to have a lawyer who is knowledgeable about trucking regualtions and asks to right interrogatories and request for production of documents to the trucking company. This discovery should always ask for the truckers logs, any downloads from the truck's black box if it has one as well as GPS readings that the trucking company maintained. Also you should always investigate the possibility that the trucking company was negligent in hiring the driver. That is why you should always investigate the drivers past employment and driving record.

If you need an experienced trucking accident lawyer, contact Jeff Lowe at the Lowe Law Firm, 877-678-3400.

Truck Accidents have been linked to driver fatigue. There have been studies that demonstrate that the number of accidents involving trucks increase dramatically between the !0th and 11th hour of the truck driver's shift. The Federal Court of Appeals used these studies to invalidate the The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ("FMCSA") regulations allowing truck drivers to drive those extra hours.

The FMCSA has now submitted an interim final rule on hours of service to the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday, Nov. 27. This will replace the one invalidated by the Court of Appeals. The OMB notice, however, did not include a date when the review will be complete.

On July 24, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tossed the provision that increased driving time to 11 hours from 10 hours and the 34-hour restart provision. In that same decision, the court denied a petition by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association asking the court to consider the impact of changes to the sleeper-berth provision.

Once OMB approves the interim final rule, it will be published in the Federal Register. Hopefully the FMCSA will err on the side of safety and not bend to the pressures of the trucking industry to allow drivers to drive longer with less rest so they can make more money. With the make of the FMCSA and its past actions I think that is doubtful. The current administration sides with big business as well as the agencies it controls through appointments and the FMCSA is no exception. Hopefully I will be proven wrong when the interim rule is make public but I doubt it.

In all accidents involving trucks, the truck driver is required to submit to an alcohol and drug test. In my experience, truck drivers have been driving under the influence of stimulants like methamphetamine, Benzedrine, adderall, cocaine, and some are driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration sometimes has random drug test. Truckers, however, can easily cheat on drug tests, according to a U.S. subcommittee investigation. The
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data indicate that 1.3 to 2.8 percent of commercial drivers randomly tested between 1994 and 2005 tested positive for illegal drugs. However, recently Oregon roadside inspectors collected 500 urine samples from commercial drivers — mostly heavy-truck drivers – and found that approximately 9 to 10% tested positive for illegal drugs.

In February, the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit asked the Government Accountability Office, to conduct an undercover investigation. The investigators invented two trucking companies, produced bogus driver’s licenses and then posed as truckers to test 24 collection sites nationwide. The GAO also interviewed all parties involved in testing, from carrier representatives to federal officials, and analyzed regulations and data.

Investigators used bogus driver’s licenses to gain access to all 24 sites investigated, showing that a drug user could send someone else to take a drug test using fake identification. Twenty-two of the 24 selected sites did not adequately follow the remaining protocols. For example, 75 percent of sites tested didn’t restrict access to items that could be used to change the specimen, such as running water, soap or air freshener.

The GAO found a significant compliance lack among carriers, particularly small carriers and self-employed truckers. More than half of carriers with operating authority are single-truck owner-operators. While they still have to implement a drug and alcohol testing program, they usually use a third-party administrator. That administrator doesn’t have the authority to enforce regulations if drug use is indicated.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, owner-operators “are in the precarious position of overseeing their own substance abuse program.” Drug testing protocol violations are noted in more than 40 percent of FMCSA’s safety audits conducted since 2003 of carriers that have recently started operations and more than 70 percent of the compliance reviews conducted on carriers in the industry since 2001.

FMCSA’s oversight activities are limited in quantity and scope. Safety audits targeted at new entrants began in 2003 and do not affect carriers in business before then. Such companies can be covered in compliance reviews, but these reviews occur at only about 2 percent of carriers a year, according to FMCSA. In addition, the agency’s oversight does not address compliance by service agents unless there are allegations or complaints.

Even when FMCSA is able to ensure that carriers and others are in compliance with drug testing requirements, the urine test can be subverted. Drug masking products such as adulterants work well and destroy the evidence of their presence. Investigators demonstrated that such products could easily be brought to the sites undetected.

In 2005, the GAO testified that 400 products were marketed to mislead drug tests. Furthermore, the required test covers only five drug categories and it may provide a clean result if a person has not used any of these drugs recently. The GAO will continue examining these recommendations, some of which were proposed by carriers and industry representatives.

This shows the need for the government to be more proactive in enforcing its rights to test truckers for illegal drugs before they cause a serious or fatal accident. It is not hard to design a protocol to prevent a trucker from cheating on a drug test. It just requires simple procedures that are followed with precautions designed to catch truckers intent of avoiding the test. Lax enforcement is the problem and truckers who drive under the influence who admittedly are in the vast minority of truckers must know there is a significant chance they will get caught and lose their livelihood for the regulations to the force and effect that they should.

Truck drivers spend an enormous amount of time behind the wheel of their eighteen wheelers each week, and truck driver fatigue is a major factor in the cause of truck accidents. The length of time that a truck driver can spend behind the wheel trying to make it to his or her destination on time has long been a topic of debate in the trucking industry.

Some truckers claim the federal regulations that went into effect in the past four years with the goal of reducing trucking accidents have actually made matters worse. How long truckers can drive, how long they can rest, and how they should log their time have fueled debate among safety advocates and trucking companies.

For years, drivers have claimed logs are routinely falsified, so there is push now for electronic monitoring devices in trucks that would automatically record drive/stop times. Truckers are not happy about this; one veteran trucker actually had to pull over just 40 miles from his destination because he had driven the maximum of 11 hours already that day. The new law required that he "hang out" for ten hours before driving the last 40 miles of his trip.

One mother, whose son was killed, along with three friends, when a tired trucker fell asleep and rolled his rig over the teenager's car on a Maine highway in 1993, created Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT). Daphne Izer actually sympathizes with the drivers who work long hours, are stuck on docks for hours waiting to be weighed or unloaded and are not getting paid for that lost time.

Although the logs and electronic monitoring devices are efforts to keep truckers rested and safe, the number of truck-related deaths in the United States is not decreasing. Stories continue to appear in the news such as the 46-year-old truck driver with no violations on his driving record who fell asleep as he sped toward vehicles that were slowing for construction on a crowded South Carolina interstate killing a young mother and her 13-year-old daughter.

Clearly something must be done to make the highways as safe as possible for those traveling the highways with trucks. The trucking industry and various highway safety groups are currently waiting for decisions from the appellate courts regarding the invalidation of the current FSMSCA' regulations allowing trucking to drive longer with less rest. These new regulations even though they were invalidated have been allowed to remain in effect because of a stay entered regarding the district courts declaring the new hours of service regulations invalid.

Something must be done to protect truck drivers and the cars on the roads with them. Since it certainly does not seem that the current FSMCSA headed by the former CEO of a trucking company appointed by the current administration and appointed by none other then George Walker Bush, will do the job that they are supposed to do, hopefully the courts will continue to do their jobs and make sure that truck safety regulations are actually that, regulations that protect the drivers of our nations highways including those who do the difficult job of driving our nations highways for a living.

Tractor trailer accidents can be catastrophic when a truck collides with a car. States are considering various ideas to make the highways safer for cars dealing with trucks.

The following is a list of states that are considering making interstate highways:safer for cars by making truck only lanes:

• Florida:is banning big trucks from the far left lane of I-4 on a 60-mile stretch between Tampa and Orlando.stretches of I-75 and I-95 elsewhere in the state have similar restrictions.

• Georgia: is considering truck-only toll lanes on parts of I-75 northwest of Atlanta and on a 20-mile stretch of the I-285 beltway that surrounds the city..

• Arizona, California, Texas and the Gulf Coast states:are using a grant to study segregating truck and automobile traffic on stretches of I-10.

Missouri, Illinois and Indiana are studying the possibility of adding truck-only lanes on I-70 from Kansas City, Missouri to the Ohio-West Virginia border study is one of six funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation to find ways to reduce congestion and improve freight delivery across the nation.

The $3 million grant will pay for Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to examine the feasibility and cost of adding two truck lanes in each direction on the 750-mile stretch.. The study likely will begin within a year, said Andrew Dietrick, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation. Among other things, it will explore how to fund such an endeavor. One option could be tolls for trucks using the dedicated lanes.. The lanes would be built specifically for big trucks, which means they could be designed to carry heavier loads than now allowed, which could provide the trucking industry with greater efficiency in moving goods, Dietrick said feasibility study typically is the beginning of a long process that can take years for a highway project to become a reality.

The federal agency is looking for ways to improve safety along the stretch of I-70, where average daily traffic ranges from more than 45,000 to 250,000 vehicles. Average daily truck traffic ranges from 11,000 to a maximum of more than 26,000..By 2035, the average daily traffic will increase to more than 100,000, including an average of 25,000 trucks.

Truckers and the trucking industry generally support exploring options that could ease their travel and improve safety."If they are looking outside of the box to try and help reduce traffic and decrease accidents and fatalities, fantastic," said KeVin Roberts, director of safety and membership for the Indiana Motor Truck Association: "Basically it boils down to trying to separate as much as possible trucks from cars," he said. "The money it will take to make something like that happen is tremendous."

Congestion, though, is an issue for truck drivers, both from a safety (cars can stop more quickly than trucks) and a monetary standpoint, Roberts said traffic backups that leave truck drivers idling in traffic are a financial issue for them, too. "That's how big trucks make money, by moving freight."

When truck are involved in accidents the frequency of deaths, and the severity of injuries increase substantially. Causes of trucking accidents include driver intoxication, brake failure, reckless driving, overloaded trucks, over sized trucks, driver fatigue, and driver inexperience. When a big rig driver engages in the same illegal behavior as some car drivers, the consequences can be far worse. Picture the scene when a big rig driver collides with a car because of speeding , failure to yield right of way, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or driver fatigue.

Concerns regarding the truck accident and the increasing number of 18-wheelers led to the formation of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to improve big-rig driver responsibility. Drivers were required to meet minimum national standards before they could obtain a Commercial Drivers License (CDL). Interstate trucking is regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). In addition, each state his its own set of regulations and laws. The FMCSR regulates such issues as: safe loading, use of alcohol and drugs, diver qualifications, and emergency equipment.

Truck drivers are also required to keep trucking logs, recording their driving times and hours of rest, among other things. Before each trip, the driver must inspect his truck systematically and this is governed by FMCSR 392.7. The driver must: (1) Review any previous inspection reports, (2) Double-check that anything marked for repair was in fact repaired, (3) Check the overall condition of his truck, looking for flat tires, suspension problems etc., (4) Check underneath the truck for any evidence of oil, coolant or fuel leaks, and (4) Examine the area around the truck for anything that might present danger to its movement, such as objects on the ground or low hanging wires.

Driver fatigue is also regulated by the FMCSR, in an attempt to cut down on accidents caused by sleepy or slow-reacting drivers. For instance, truck drivers may drive for 11 hours if they've just had 10 consecutive hours off but may not drive after being on the road for 60 hours in a 7-day period. They must take at least 34 consecutive hours off before they can begin another driving cycle. Because of pressure over the profit margin, drivers are sometimes drive more hours than these regulations permit with the companies tacit permission or purposely turning a blind eye to the truckers violations.

If you or a loved one is hurt in a semi-truck accident you should consult an an attorney experienced in handing truck accidents In addition time is of the essence because relevant evidence may disappear as time passes, such as the truck drivers log, which may legally be destroyed after 6 months a truck accident. These log books can supply evidence of: Maintenance and repairs. Also, memories fade, people move away, become ill, even die. All of this makes gathering evidence company will want to resolve things as quickly as possible, even right at the scene of the accident.

Also never sign any document presented to you by an insurance representative without first consulting an attorney. You could be signing away your right to proper compensation. Keep in mind that insurance companies make their money by investing. That means that the less they can pay out in compensation to their customers, and the longer they can delay any such payments, the more income they can be drawing on their invested money. The interests of an insurance company are directly opposite to yours as an accident victim. Don't delay in consulting an experienced truck accident attorney.

Truck drivers hours of service regulations are the laws that truck drivers have to follow regarding the number of hours they can drive per day and how long they must rest. The federal court struck down new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ("FMCSA") regulations that would allow an 11-hour driving day followed by 10 hours of rest with a 34-hour reset. The court did not think that was safe and struck down the new law which would result in going back to 10 hours of drive time followed by an 8-hour rest.

The American Truckers Association ("ATA") President Bill Graves stated that: "The ATA believes the existing rules have proven to be a significant improvement over the old rules in terms of reducing driver fatigue and related incidents. Motor carrier experience and FMCSA data dramatically illustrate this. The ATA plans to provide additional real-world documentation of the effectiveness of the current rules."

FMCSA administrator Annette Sandberg: "We have a very aggressive goal at the Department of Transportation to reduce fatalities on our nation's highways, so safety is the top issue in our rule-making process. We developed the new hours-of-service rule with the priority in mind of reducing fatigue-related truck crashes, most notably in the long-haul sector where truck driver fatigue is 18 times greater than that of the short-haul sector. It is important to note that the research supporting the new rule estimates that only 5.5% of all large truck crashes are fatigue-related."

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president Judith Stone stated "In today's ruling, the court has once again sided with public safety and rejected FMCSA's illogical proposition that driving longer hours and working longer days will somehow solve truck driver fatigue."

Judge David Sentell who struck down the FMCSA new rule held that: "The agency [FMCSA] admits that studies show that crash risk increases, in the agency's words, 'geometrically' after the eighth hour on duty." He also chastised the agency for "ignoring its own evidence that fatigue causes many truck accidents" in a December 2006 ruling on the proposed HOS rules.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety VP Jackie Gillan: "In the last 10 years, 56,935 people have died and a million more were injured in truck crashes in communities across the country. American families are paying a steep personal and financial price for this public health disaster. ... It's time to stop coddling the trucking industry and make the safety of all motorists, including truck drivers, a priority."

Public Citizen president Joan Claybrook: "Large trucks are rolling time bombs on our highways, with tired truckers allowed to work 14 and 16 hours a day under the new DOT rules, making truck driving the most dangerous occupation in America."

PATT (Parents Against Tired Truckers) founder Daphne Izer: "The trucking profession has become 'sweatshops on wheels' because of the excessive and unsafe hours of work and driving time required of truck drivers."

It is odd that the agency that is charged with protecting public safety is so intent on allowing truckers to drive longer and ignores the studies that show that after 8 hours the number of accidents involving trucks increases dramatically. Could it be that the FMCSA is promoting profits over safety because of contributions to politicians? The current administration is intent on helping big business whenever it can and if it is at the expense of safety of drivers on our Interstate Highways so be it. Luckily this time the courts are looking out for our safety and protecting us from the FMCSA and the interests of big business.

Trucker fatigue is a common cause of truck accidents. Drivers of tractor trailers are regulated on the number of hours they can drive by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). In the long battle between the FMCSA and the courts over the FMSCA's attempts to allow truckers to drive longer with and rest less, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on July 24, 2007, voided the FMSCA's new Hours of Service Regulations on procedural grounds.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) filed a motion with the court on Sept. 6, 2007, asking that the Court keep the current HOS provisions in place for an eight month period, allowing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) time to issue a new final rule.
On Sept. 21, 2007, FMCSA filed a memorandum with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to delay implementing the recent ruling on the HOS regulations governing commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers for 12 months. Under the court's Rules, however, the stay only extends 90 days to Dec. 27, 2007.

Maybe the FMSCA will quit trying to allow truckers to drive longer and rest less; based on their past history, however that is doubtful. I know from reading the posts of many truckers, that they are in favor of the new regulations because allows them to work longer and if the are paid by the mile, make more money. I have seen truck drivers in favor of the new regulations make comparisons to nurses who work 12 hour shifts. Anyone who has taken a long car trip knows that it is not necessarily the long hours that can make driving dangerous, it is the monotony that can cause you to not pay attention like you should. I have heard it called highway hypnosis. Because of the tragic results that one tired trucker can cause, I am in favor of the old rules that only allow truckers to work 10 hour days.