Trucks and Truckers Take a Hit in December. Part 2

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.

While it may be true the choices the Bush administration made in placing, what some describe, as "the fox was guarding the henhouse", the appointments, in my opinion, of Duane W. Acklie, a leading political fund-raiser and chairman of the American Trucking Associations, and Walter B. McCormick Jr., to serve on the Bush-Cheney transition team, did not equate to the death of the Ms. Edwards.

President Bush also appointed Michael P. Jackson, a former top official at the trucking associations, deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation.

To lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the president picked Joseph M. Clapp, the former chairman of Roadway, a trucking company, and the leader of an industry foundation that sponsored research claiming fatigue was not a factor in truck accidents, a conclusion at odds with government and academic studies.

No matter the leaders, the most important factor in this tragedy was the disregard of long standing rules to not operate a CMV while tired or impaired. And not the actions of FMCSA or any policy instituted, or not instituted.

I have been driving for more than 38 years, long haul, over the road trucking. I never allow anyone to dictate to me when I can, or can not, drive. I, alone, am responsible for my actions. As was this driver.

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.

This was a trainee, on his first run, with a trainer with only 1 year of experience, who, according to the article, was not being attentive to the needs of his student, and in fact was asleep much of the time. How does that equate to a failing of the regulations? It was personal responsibility abandoned.

Finger pointing will not bring back the victim of this crash. But by actually following the regulations as written, it could have been avoided. Regulations prohibit a driver from operating a CMV while tired, ill or otherwise incapacitated.

The problem was not the new hours of service, instead a disregard of present rules that are designed to protect the motoring public and the driver him/herself.

If we care to place blame, let it be with the non-existent training program for new drivers. No person should be unleashed on the motoring public without a period of time, in the seat, being observed by a qualified trainer. A driver with one year's experience, in my opinion, is not considered qualified.

The fatality rate for truck-related accidents remains nearly double that involving only cars, safety and insurance groups say.

And I'm sure the Atlanta lawyer's blog referenced above will concur. Of course fatality rates are higher when it is truck vs. car, as opposed to car vs. car. Seldom does a truck win with an encounter with a locomotive either. When one vehicle outweighs the other as much 40 times, what could possibly be the outcome?

Facts from many sources state time and again many truck vs. car accidents are indeed the fault of the automobile in as much as 75% of the time.

And how has the industry, the government or any of these reporting agencies helped?

Have they supported programs like Ol'BLUE,USA who has, since 1986, provided training to school children about safety around large vehicles. Or trade shows and radio programs like "Ask The Law" an Ol'Blue program that fosters better understanding between drivers and law enforcement of regulations and issues with enforcing them. Ol'Blue has done more than all the agencies combined. Federal governmental agencies do not support this program. Source -11

This story was not published to see highway safety improve. It is well known the bias The Times has for Bush. While it did raise some important issues, these issues were present in the previous administration also.

The practice of falsifying driver hours is an open secret in the industry; truckers routinely refer to their logs as ''comic books.'' Fines are small. The federal motor carrier agency does not have the staff to monitor closely 700,000 businesses and almost eight million trucks.

They note that weakening the rules has reversed a course set by the Clinton administration and has resulted in the federal government repeatedly missing its own targets for reducing the death rate."

A driver for Boyd Brothers stated in The Times article:

Mr. Unrine said his orientation instructor told his class that government inspectors were allowed to examine a monthly logbook if it was bound. But if the staples were removed, the log was considered ''loose leaf'' and inspectors could require an examination of only those pages from the most recent seven days.

A roadside inspection only concerns itself with the previous 7/8 days, (depending on logging method), no matter the method of documentation. An internal audit at the carrier's place of business might look at logs for months, or even years, prior to the audit.

On December 11, 2006, as reported in Fleet Owner Magazine, the FMCSA took The New York Times to task for the article. Source -7

The article stated, in part:

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on Friday issued a response to an article in The New York Times (NYT) that portrays the current hours-of-service (HOS) rules as looser than the older rules. The article pointed to the fact that the current rules potentially allows more driving hours than the pre-2003 rule.

The article linked the Bush Administration's commitment to deregulating businesses and its ties with the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) to the looser trucking regulations.

"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," stated the article's author, Stephen Lavaton.

"The truck fatality rate has declined 11% on the Bush administration's watch...while the number of truck vehicle miles traveled increased by over 10%," FMCSA stated.

FMCSA dismissed the notion that the current HOS represents deregulation over the pre-2003 rules."

No matter the administration, the rules in place or the monitoring method used, the ultimate responsibility becomes the driver at the controls. If this driver has not been adequately trained, or coached on the safety implications of violating Hours of Service rules, nothing will change.

Source - 7

http://fleetowner.com/news/topstory/fmcsa_rebukes_times/

Source - 8
http://www.olblueusa.org

Source -9

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/washington/03trucks.html?ex=1322802000&en=8e45e5cf10b15b58&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

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Monty Rhoades is a free lance writer for Truck.Net