Trucking Accidents: Who's Trying to Protect Us?

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ACT NOW! Tell your Member of Congress to stand up for our safety and support legislation limiting the length and size of large trucks.

Interstate trucking is regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) through two of its agencies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

In 1966, the U.S. Congress enacted the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, and subsequently empowered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set objective and practical traffic safety standards. The primary purpose of the Act was to protect vehicle occupants by setting minimum standards for safety. Over the years, NHTSA has been responsible for assessing the incidence and causes of injuries and fatalities on U.S. roadways, setting consequent appropriate safety standards, recommending legislative action by Congress when needed, and educating the public about traffic safety.

In short, NHTSA views its missions as saving lives, preventing injuries, and reducing vehicle-related crashes.

NHTSA has a broad mandate concerned with all motor vehicles, a majority of which are non-commercial: automobiles, small trucks (such as pickup trucks), and motorcycles, for example. However, in a move to dramatically reduce injuries and fatalities, in 2009 NHTSA introduced tough new braking rules for large trucks. The new standard, to be phased in over four years beginning in 2012, requires tractor trailers going 60 miles an hour to be able to come to a complete stop in 250 feet. (The previous requirement was a complete stop within 355 feet.) Although the new standard applies only to tractor trailers – not single-unit trucks, trailers or buses – it is estimated to save 227 lives a year, prevent 300 injuries, and reduce property damage costs by more than $169 million annually.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a parallel Department of Transportation agency, is charged with focusing solely on commercial vehicles and drivers who are interstate carriers. Intrastate carriers of hazardous materials are subject to these regulations, as well.

One commendable example of FMCSA regulatory action to protect consumers is the recent prohibition of texting by truck drivers. A study commissioned by FMCSA had produced startling results: increased accident rates were correlated with commercial truck drivers taking their eyes off the road to text - even for just a few seconds. In January 2010, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a federal ban on texting by commercial truck drivers.

Three of the most important responsibilities of the FMCSA are:

• Developing and implementing uniform commercial driver’s license (CDL) requirements.

  Before 1986, licensing of truck drivers across the country was a hodge-podge process that, in some states, did not have requirements beyond those for driving an automobile – much less skills testing to determine if an applicant was qualified to drive a truck. By obtaining CDLs in several states, many drivers were able to hide traffic violations that could keep them from operating their trucks.
  
  The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act, approved by Congress in 1986, retained each state’s right to issue commercial driver’s licenses, but mandated standard minimum requirements and outlawed licensing from more than one state. The Act also required states to adopt testing to make sure applicants were qualified to drive the vehicle for which he or she would be licensed.
  
  Since 1992, drivers of commercial motor vehicles are required by federal law to have a CDL, whether participating in interstate, intrastate, or foreign commerce.  States develop their own tests – which must be at least as strict as federal standards, and include assessment of both knowledge and skills. The FMCSA mandates stiff penalties for truck drivers who violate CDL standards, which include a .04% blood alcohol concentration level to define driving under the influence. (This is lower than the .08% to .10% BAC standard applied by most states for determining DUI for drivers of non-commercial vehicles.)

• Spelling out and monitoring regulations covering suspension, revocation and cancelation of CDL licenses, as well as prohibitions against trucking companies continuing to use drivers who have lost their licenses.

  Among the disqualifying circumstances for truck drivers are two or more serious traffic convictions within a three year period. Serious traffic convictions are defined as, for example, excessive speeding, reckless driving, improper or erratic lane changes, following too closely, or offenses in connection with fatal accidents. The most serious offenses – driving under the influence of a controlled substance or alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident, or using a commercial vehicle to commit a felony - mandate a three-year disqualification. Out-of-state violations are treated the same as in-state violations, but drivers who have become disqualified from driving a commercial vehicle may, at a state’s discretion, be licensed to operate a non-commercial vehicle.

• Promulgating regulations for truck driver hours of service (HOS), which place limits on how long the drivers of trucks and other commercial vehicles may drive.

  Based on long-term studies of the relationship between adequate rest and truck drivers’ ability to perform safe operations, the FMCSA has established limits on how many hours interstate truck drivers may drive, and minimums for sleep and rest. These are found in Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. These rules are identical or similar to what many states require for intrastate trucking.
  
  FMCSA hours of service rules specify that property-carrying commercial vehicle drivers:
  

  • May drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off.
  • May not drive more than 14 hours after coming off duty following 10 consecutive hours off duty.  More off-duty time does not extend the permitted driving time.
  • May not drive more than 60 hours total in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours total in 8 consecutive days. Drivers must take 34 or more consecutive hours off before starting a new 7/8 consecutive day period.
  
  Drivers using a sleeper berth are subject to slightly different limits, but must take at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth and 2 additional consecutive hours either in the berth, off duty, or a combination of the two.
  

Some independent federal watchdog agencies question whether DOT and its agencies are doing their job to protect us from the devastation of large truck crashes.

The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency that serves as a watchdog over federal agency performance on transportation issues, has been critical of the pace at which the FMCSA achieves important safety objectives. The NTSB warns that FMCSA’s system for assessing how safely a motor carrier operates “does not place sufficient emphasis on driver or vehicle qualifications.”  

Responding to this criticism, in March 2007 the FMCSA created a Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee consisting of representatives from the motor carrier industry, safety advocates, and safety enforcement officials. The agency is developing new performance-based systems for measuring truck and driver safety. Its Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiative will include cross-matching roadside inspection violations with data related to unsafe driving and crash risk.  

One NTSB recommendation that consistently receives an “unacceptable response” from the FMCSA proposes electronic on-board data recorders to maintain accurate records on driver hours of service and accident conditions. For more than 30 years, the NTSB has urged electronic recorders to improve collection and maintenance of this data, but the FMCSA has steadfastly refused. The most recent FMCSA response has been to propose mandatory installation of these devices only with carriers that have demonstrated serious noncompliance –  about 930 carriers of the more than 700,000 currently in operation.

Another government arm, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, has been openly critical of the certification process for drivers with serious medical conditions – a problem that has been documented widely by the media. A June 2008 GAO report says that about 563,000 licensed truck drivers were found on the disability benefit rolls of the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, or the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor. Examples in the report include a licensed Florida truck driver receiving disability benefits for multiple sclerosis, which causes fatigue; and a truck driver on full disability in Maryland who, despite being profoundly deaf, received medical certification to support his license.

State governments, too, play a role in protecting us from the devastation of large truck crashes. Unfortunately, some states do a better job than others in protecting their citizens.

While each state is charged with following and enforcing federal testing and licensing regulations, in many states this has proved to be a widespread and potentially dangerous problem. A 2007 Chicago Tribune article lays out a pattern of laxity at the state level in testing and tracking licensed drivers, as well as license-for-sale scams operating unabated. The FMCSA complains that it has no control over states’ inability or unwillingness to identify drivers with suspicious licenses. DOT officials conducting 21 investigations in 13 states cited one state where they were told there were “too many suspect drivers to list,” and five jurisdictions where the states were unable to provide investigators with lists of licenses obtained by fraudulent means.

Another challenge to enforcement of safe driving standards to prevent truck crashes is the number of truck drivers who have circumvented or ignored state medical certification requirements. One recommendation that the FMCSA has never implemented is a proposal to set standards for state determination of whether truckers are medically safe to drive. FMCSA’s chief safety officer, Rose McMurray, blames the agency’s lack of action on budget constraints and difficulty coordinating with the 50 states. However, analysis of 2006 commercial driver violations indicates that just 12 states are responsible for more than half of drivers sanctioned for violating medical rules.

Now Congress is facing two conflicting legislative proposals: one pushed by the trucking industry and its lobbyists, the other supported by consumer organizations and truck safety advocates committed to reducing truck size and driver fatigue.

• H.R. 1799, the so-called Safe and Efficient Transportation Act of 2009, would increase the limits on truck length and on truck weight – from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds for tractor trailers on interstate highways.  The bill, introduced March 30, 2009 by Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud of Maine, is supported aggressively by the American Trucking Associations, the National Private Truck Council, and some shipping organizations.

  Proponents of H.R. 1799 cite as a basis for their support a study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute claiming “significant improvements would be won in fuel consumption, cost, congestion, distribution efficiency and driver availability.” The bill was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee with 12 co-sponsors.

• Opponents of H.R. 1799 are a diverse coalition that includes the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the Teamsters Union, and truck safety consumer and crash victim groups such as Public Citizen, Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), the Truck Safety Coalition, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and StopBiggerTrucks.org. They are encouraged by a national poll indicating that eight out of ten Americans believe that larger trucks will decrease – not increase – truck safety. Just 16% of those surveyed were in favor of the proposals in H.R. 1799.

To counter H.R. 1799, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative James McGovern (D-MA) have sponsored the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act, S. 779, introduced April 1, 2009, and H.R. 1618, introduced March 19, 2009. Both bills would continue the current 53 feet/80,000 pound limits and freeze state limits that existed as of June 1, 2008.

On the heels of previous challenges, consumer advocacy and truck safety groups continue to fight a “midnight regulation” of the Bush Administration that finalized revisions to hours of service limits that increased the amount of time truckers may drive.

The rules, which were first promulgated in 2003 but took effect in final form January 19, 2009, raise the HOS limits from the pre-2003 limit to 11 hours in a single shift. Safety advocates argue that trucking companies can manipulate the new rules so that truckers could drive up to 88 consecutive hours or work 98 consecutive hours .

Public Citizen, one of the organizations fighting the limit increase, chides the FMCSA for ignoring three court decisions issued since 2003 ordering the agency to reconsider the increase. One decision stated specifically that FMCSA had not adequately taken driver health into consideration. Says John Lannen, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, “FMCSA has issued a regulation that just doesn’t care about the health and safety of truck drivers, much less anyone else sharing the road with them.”

In March 2009, a coalition of truck safety advocates filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asking for review of the final rules. The plaintiffs also sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, which read in part, “We strongly support a regulation on interstate truck drivers’ HOS that improves truck safety, reduces fatigue-related crashes, and safeguards truck driver health. These are goals that have been mandated by Congress and are strongly supported by the American people.”  

For more information, or to join the fight for truck safety, see the list of truck safety advocacy organizations under Truck Crash Resources on this site. If you would like to contact your U.S. Senator or Member of Congress to weigh in on these issues, click here to identify your representatives and send an email.

If a loved one has been killed, or you or a family member has been seriously injured in a large truck crash, the attorneys at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley are prepared to investigate your potential claim and help you establish your rights to seek justice. Please fill out our Contact Form, or call us to learn more and arrange for a confidential free consultation.