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HOS DEBATE * USA - Congress pushing for less driving time for truckers
The typical work day is eight hours, but for most truck drivers it is longer. Drivers can have their big rigs on the road for 11 hours straight before they're required by law to stop for the day.Boise,Idaho,USA -KTVB - December 20, 2007: -- Lawmakers are worried about tired truckers and want to shorten the hours they can drive... Last year, the Bush Administration changed truckers allotted driving hours from 10 to 11... Now, many members of Congress want to change it back. They claim 11 hours is too long, and pushes drivers to their limit... Four-thousand trucks travel through the Treasure Valley every day, many of them from out-of-state that are anxiously trying to drop off their loads so they can get back home... There are incentives to make miles quickly, but some lawmakers say that's dangerous... The truck drivers we talked to say they are responsible at the wheel and know their limits... (SEE VIDEO)
* Sleeping Truck Drivers Cause Accidents
USA -Johnny Brunson.com -December 21st, 2007: -- Last week the Center for Disease Control (CDC) celebrated Drowsy Driver Prevention Week. Interestingly, in a poll conducted as part of their education campaign, 47 percent of commercial truck drivers admitted to having fallen asleep while driving a truck during some point in their career... In a study conducted of the sleep patterns of long haul truck drivers and printed in the New England Journal of Medicine, drivers obtained between 4 and 5 hours of verifiable sleep during the course of driving ten-hour days in a five-day period. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. Thus, fatigue and sleep deprivation constitute significant safety issues for long haul truck drivers... Truck driver fatigue is the subject of new U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations. Tractor-trailer truck drivers may only drive for eleven hours after ten hours off. The National Transportation Safety Board states that driver fatigue may account for one third of all large (semi, tractor-trailer) truck accidents. Further, driver fatigue was the likely cause in thirty percent of all fatal crashes... Accidents involving sleeping drivers – and worse sleeping truck drivers – often yield tragic consequences. Sleeping drivers usually maintain their speed; thus, not braking or turning to avoid the accident.
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