New Federal Regulations to Reduce Truck Driver Fatigue, Accidents

A collision between a big-rig and a smaller passenger vehicle would only mean two things; injuries or instant death. Despite the fact that such accidents only account for around 10 percent of all motor vehicle crash deaths in the United States, most of the recorded deaths in truck mishaps often happen not on truck drivers, but on passenger vehicle occupants.

One of the reasons why truck accidents happen is because of truck driver fatigue. Because driving trucks entails long drives and weekly completion of working hours, most drivers often experience chronic fatigue, therefore increasing their chances of getting involved in crashes. Previous safety regulations imposed by the federal government on trucking companies does not also help, which is why such devastating accidents continue to happen.

Fortunately, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), implemented a new set of federal regulations that would not only reduce the chances of truck drivers to experience fatigue, but also improve the overall safety of motorists.

Fully implemented on the first day of July this year, the said safety regulations were first announced by the FMCSA in December of 2011. According to the DOT division’s press release, it estimated that the safety regulations would save around 20 lives, as well as prevent more or less 1,400 crashes and 560 injuries annually.

Since the FMCSA’s announcement, trucking companies were given 18 months to adopt the changes in the hours-of-service rules for truck drivers. In the new set of rules, truck drivers would now only have to work for an average of 70 hours a week, instead of the previous 82 hours per week.

Also, once they’ve reached the said average maximum hours of driving within a week, they can resume their duties on the next workweek if they rest for 34 consecutive hours, including at least two nights when their body clock demands sleep the most, which is from1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Finally, truck drivers are now required to take a 30-minute break during the first eight hours of a shift. Retained from the previous hours-of-service rules is the 11-hour-per-day driving limit within a 14-hour work day.

Meanwhile, legal experts, including a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, are satisfied with the new changes with regard to the working hours of truck drivers. They believe that this development would lessen incidents of truck collisions, as well as lower the number of injuries and or deaths because of these mishaps.

Accidents Involving Big-rigs: Related Statistics and Why They Happen

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Major injuries and even instant death can happen between a collision involving a smaller vehicle and a big-rig. In such an accident, casualties and fatalities mostly happen among occupants of passenger vehicles, as smaller vehicles are vulnerable to collisions with large trucks. As it is, a large vehicle that often weighs 20 to 30 times as much as passenger cars and are taller with greater ground clearance can ram through smaller vehicles in most crashes.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 3,373 people were killed in large truck accidents, accounting for 10 percent of all the motor vehicle crash deaths during that year (32,367). Of the 3,373 people who died in large truck accidents in 2011, about 66 percent of them (2,241) were passenger vehicle occupants, while nearly 16 percent of them (553) were occupants of large trucks. The remaining 16 percent (525) were the unfortunate motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians combined.

Moreover, the number of vehicle occupants killed in two-vehicle crashes between a passenger vehicle and a large truck were 1,889. About 98 percent of them were passenger vehicle occupants (1,842), whereas the remaining 2 percent (47) were large truck occupants.

Meanwhile, a common factor as to why these horrific crashes happen is on the truck’s capability to stop. While cars are able to stop right away after motorists step on the brakes, trucks take much time to do so, particularly loaded tractor-trailers that take a long time to do so. They cover much of the road more if inclement weather conditions (e.g. wet, slippery roads), or poorly-maintained brakes are taken into account.

Another common factor for such an occurrence is fatigue, especially on the part of the truck drivers. While federal hours-of-service regulations allow truck drivers to drive up to 11 hours on a typical work day (77 hours for a seven-day period), many trucking companies have been found to violate these rules in which the drivers work more hours than they are supposed to.

Incidentally, a truck accident victim may seek damages for the injuries he or she incurred, especially if the incident was caused by negligence. Apart from the driver of the truck involved, the trucking company may also be one of the defendants in his or her case. In order to determine which liable party can be sued, and how much he or she is entitled to receive as compensation for the damages, he or she must immediately consult with a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer.