Georgia Personal Injury Law Blog : Atlanta Georgia Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Jason R. Schultz Law Firm : Wrongful Death, Malpractice, Car Accidents : Georgia

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) has agreed to rewrite hours of service regulations for truck drivers, bowing to pressure from safety groups and labor unions who insisted that the current rule increased the risk of accidents.

The current rule allows long haul truckers to drive for 11 consecutive hours at a stretch, extended from the previous ten.  That move had been opposed by victims’ families, truck safety groups and the Teamsters union, who challenged the rule, claiming that these extended hours increased the risk of accidents. The FMCSA has now agreed to rewrite the rules.  The agency has assured these groups that it will come up with new rules governing hours of service within the next 9 months.

The move to rewrite the rules comes even as a new chief takes office at the FMCSA.  Anne Ferro, a former Maryland trucking industry lobbyist has been confirmed as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Ferro’s nomination for the post of FMCSA chief had not been without controversy, mostly because of her past as a lobbyist for the trucking industry.  For 6 years, Ferro served as president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a fact that aggravated her opponents, even though her lobbying was restricted to the state and didn’t extend to federal officials.

As an Atlanta trucking accident lawyer, I have been especially concerned about Ferro’s strong support for the 11-hour trucking rule, in light of the mounting evidence that it placed truckers and motorists at greater risk. It doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to appreciate that truck drivers are under constant pressure to meet tight delivery schedules, and the fewer hours they are forced to drive, the safer we all will be.

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I read with great interest an article written by Kyle Jernigan, an account executive for Hiring Truck Drivers entitled Truck Drivers: Not The Dangerous Ones On The Road.

While I agree with much of what Mr. Jernigan has written and believe, as he does, that most truck drivers and trucking companies are safe, unfortuanately there are still too many truck drivers, trucking companies and shippers that have too little regard for the federal motor carrier safety regulations, including hours of service violations, and treat them as a nuisance.

Many truck drivers blame shippers, not trucking companies, for the pressure some drivers are under to deliver no matter what unforeseen delays, including traffic jams or weather, slow them down.  Those delays cause drivers to push the rules.  On the other hand, you have "supertruckers" who will drive well in excess of the rules on a consistent basis and trucking companies, especially smaller ones, look the other way in order to make money.

Federal regulations permit a truck driver to drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty. They can drive a maximum of 60 hours in a seven-day period or 70 hours during an eight-day period. Before starting a shift that will run for seven or eight days straight, they must take off 34 or more consecutive hours, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Daphne Izer, founder and co-chair of Parents Against Tired Truckers, said the federal rules still don't address the continued problem with driver fatigue.  "Drivers are paid by the mile. Not much is going to change until that changes," Izer said.  Delays can prompt truckers to falsify logbooks so they can make up time and mileage.  "Oftentimes, loads have to be delivered at any cost and that cost is human lives," she said. "Granted, the truck driver is responsible when he is behind the wheel. But if he doesn't do what he's told, in many cases he will lose his job."  Izer started the group in 1994, seven months after her son and three other teenagers were killed when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into them. The teens had pulled over onto the shoulder of the Maine Turnpike. Another teen was seriously injured.  Izer also called for onboard electronic recorders to replace the logbooks many drivers are required to fill out themselves.

While truck drivers are certainly not “the dangerous villains of the highway,“ my professional experience has revealed that in almost all of the serious injury and wrongful death trucking cases that I have handled, driver fatigue has played a role.  Oftentimes, discovery reveals a tale far different from the one told on the truck driver's log book alone.

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