NYT: As Trucking Rules Are Eased, a Debate on Safety Grows

[RedEarth]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 — As Dorris Edwards slowed for traffic near Kingdom City, Mo., on her way home from a Thanksgiving trip in 2004, an 18-wheeler slammed into her Jeep Cherokee.

The truck crushed the sport-utility vehicle and shoved it down an embankment off Interstate 70. Ms. Edwards, 62, was killed. The truck driver accepted blame for the accident, and Ms. Edwards’s family filed a lawsuit against the driver and the trucking company.

In the course of pursuing its case, the family broached a larger issue: whether the Bush administration’s decision to reject tighter industry regulation and instead reduce what officials viewed as cumbersome rules permitted a poorly trained trucker to stay behind the wheel, alone, instead of resting after a long day of driving.

After intense lobbying by the politically powerful trucking industry, regulators a year earlier had rejected proposals to tighten drivers’ hours and instead did the opposite, relaxing the rules on how long truckers could be on the road. That allowed the driver who hit Ms. Edwards to work in the cab nearly 12 hours, 8 of them driving nonstop, which he later acknowledged had tired him.

Government officials had also turned down repeated requests from insurers and safety groups for more rigorous training for new drivers. The driver in the fatal accident was a rookie on his first cross-country trip; his instructor, a 22-year-old with just a year of trucking experience, had been sleeping in a berth behind the cab much of the way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/washington/03trucks.html?ei=5094&en=60f6e12c02fd6a8e&hp=&ex=1165122000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[williesgirl]

1. Wonder how much the trucking lobby paid to keep rules from being tightened? recommended

[TwentyFive]

2. Now if we could only figure a way to make it so the trucks only smash into republican cars.

It would be ironic justice for these stupid 'free market' conservative morons who believe that business should have few, if any, regulations. The republican gets a 3% tax cut, which his family uses to buy his casket.

There are WAAAY too many trucks on the road these days. These trucks do not belong on the road....certainly not so many...and CERTAINLY not with fatigued drivers. Everybody realizes this.

[whathappened]

3. have a close friend

who drives a truck for aliving , and he says it is crazy out there , they are being pushed hard by there employers to fudge there books and keep them running hard ,nonstop , and the reason they are so many trucks out there is because they are useing these trailors as ware house's , so what we have is a big mess on the roads

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. as a former dispatcher...

I was 'told' that fudging the books was status quo... and I had to run my guys to Washington every day, that's a 10 hour round trip (easily). The new rules came into effect the year I started dispatching. I don't know if I heard more bitching about it from my bosses, or the drivers.

We'd be better off (as a country) if the rails would quit scaling back and raising rates. Less trucks on the the road, and more freight on the rails would benefit us all. imho.



BOOK TV Schedule - December 2nd - 4th
*John Edwards, ed., Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives
*Henry Louis Gates, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
*A World Ignited: How Apostles of Ethnic, Religious, and Racial Hatred Torch the Globe
*In Depth: Jimmy Carter - Live Call-in show! 3 hours!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2843827#2843857

[bperci108]

6. Hmmm.....

"There are WAAAY too many trucks on the road these days."

Care to venture a guess as to why that is?




"These trucks do not belong on the road....certainly not so many...and CERTAINLY not with fatigued drivers."


They have just as much right to be there as you do in your car.

And they are regulated and controlled and tested FAR more than you; maybe it's time we clamped down on sanctimonious four-wheeler drivers, eh? :D




"Everybody realizes this."

"Everybody" realized the world was flat once upon a time, too.

Didn't make it a fact though, did it? ;)

[littlebit]

4. I have ben a truck driver

for about six years. When they changed the hours of service rules a few years ago it made things alot harder on us. We use to be able to stop and take breaks during the day if we were tired. With the way the rules are now it pretty much forces us to stay behind the wheel of the truck when we should be sleeping. Between the demands of the trucking companies and the customers it has gotten alot more dangerous out there.

[bperci108]

7. I found the opposite to be true.

The change was closer to keeping the actual calendar day.

What was hoped was to eliminate the "5 on 4 off, 5 on 4 off, 5 on 4 off"...etc. that some drivers would do over and over again, day after day.

I find the combination of the 8 off at night and the two hours off during the day to be more restful and closer to the natural circadian rhythms of the body than the old way.

But what it comes down to, is that there is no excuse to ever, EVER drive tired.

If you're sleepy; pull over. No matter what.

Truth be told, the real people behind this push to go back to the old rules are the LTL lines. They are the money and the power behind the ATA, not the independant OO guys or the company drivers. Their terminals and schedules are designed to fit the old system, not the new one; hence they have been fighting this ever since it's inception.

[bperci108]

5. Speaking from experience....( I drive one)...

...the safety problem isn't with the "relaxed rules" (that is pure horseshit; the Hours of Service change was beneficial, not detrimental) it's with the rapidly increasing number of vehicles on the road and distracted automobile drivers.

I drive a truck and I've seen an increase of late in just stark stupidity and carelessness on the part of the car drivers, especially since cell phones, in-dash DVD players, car entertainment systems, etc. have become the norm.

The big truck accident rate has been declining, but the auto accident rate has been increasing, last I knew.

Every day I see women putting on makeup at 70 MPH. People eating with both hands and steering with their elbows. Kids text-messaging at the wheel. A driver and passenger BOTH watching a movie on a laptop while hurtling down the interstate. People reading the mail or even BOOKS while driving.

And endless numbers of cell-phone yakkers totally oblivious to the world around them.

So forgive me for calling "BULLSHIT" to most of the NYT's article.

Projection is just so self-satisfying.

Problems like the inexperienced driver listed can be fixed, but truckers aren't the only ones who need to police their ranks.

Let's start with mandatory vision and skills testing of auto drivers after a certain age. Say 50?

Maybe random drug testing, background checks, fingerprinting, etc. just like we have to deal with, perhaps?

The regulations are quite strict regarding violations, too. Most folks would soon become pedestrians if they were subject to the same laws we are. CDL's can be easily revoked for many things that auto drivers do daily and receive little punishment for, if caught.

Perhaps it's time for a General Strike by the truck drivers....

Let guys like the author of the NYT piece above eat out of the dumpster (no food deliveries to the city that can't feed itself) and walk to work for a few weeks (no fuel or parts for the busses or trains).

If you wear it, eat it, drive it, use it, etc -- a truck brought it to you.


Okay, rant off....


:rant:

[cap]

9. not here in PA...

the cops still are flagging down truckers for inspection. PA has had some very bad accidents involving trucks barreling down interstates and tipping over into houses and setting rows of houses on fire.

[NMDemDist2]

10. saftey concerns with Mexican trucks too

http://www.amo-union.org/Newspaper/Morgue/1-2002/Sections/News/border.htm

snip...

The Senate had previously drafted a set of safety standards for which it would have conceivably taken years to establish inspection and enforcement systems, and which Mexican trucking companies would have been very hard pressed to meet. The House of Representatives passed legislation to prohibit Mexican trucks from operating outside of a 20-mile zone within the U.S. border.
However, a House and Senate conference committee in November compromised on legislation that keeps several of the safety standards proposed by the Senate but relaxes or eliminates others in order to make it easier for Mexican trucking companies and the U.S. Department of Transportation to meet the new less demanding guidelines..........