Court Issues Split Ruling on Drivers’ Hours of Service Rule

A federal court issued a split ruling Tuesday on the government’s rules governing truck driver hours of service, rejecting a petition by a group representing owner-operators but granting a separate request by a public safety advocate group.

American Trucking Associations said it will seek a stay from the court to keep current rules in place until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration provides the court with explanations for two of the rules provisions, the group said following the ruling.

“ATA believes the existing rules have proven to be a significant improvement over the old rules in terms of reducing driver fatigue and related incidents,” said ATA President Bill Graves.

“Motor carrier experience and FMCSA data dramatically illustrate this. ATA plans to provide additional real-world documentation of the effectiveness of the current rules,” Graves said in a statement.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s decision denied a motion by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association but granted a request by Public Citizen and other groups to overturn portions of the HOS rule.

The court’s ruling ends nearly eight months of speculating about the fate of the rule, which will now go back to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The three-judge panel ruled that FMCSA “failed to give interested parties an opportunity to comment on the methodology of the crash-risk model that the agency used to justify an increase in the maximum number of daily and weekly hours that truck drivers may drive and work.”

“We also find that the agency failed to provide an explanation for critical elements of that methodology,” the court stated.

In a written statement, FMCSA said it was evaluating its next step.

“We are analyzing the decision issued today to understand the court’s findings as well as determine the agency’s next steps to prevent driver fatigue, ensure safe and efficient motor carrier operations and save lives,” FMCSA said. “This decision does not go into effect until Sept. 14, unless the court orders otherwise.”

The court vacated the portions of the rule that extended the maximum allowable driving time to 11 hours from the previous limit of 10, and eliminated the so-called 34-hour restart, which allows drivers to reset their maximum allowable hours in a week.

The ruling maintains the limit for drivers’ work time of 14 consecutive hours. Previously, the agency had allowed drivers to work for 15 hours per day, but had let them clock on and off duty.

The court setback is FMCSA’s second since it first tried to rewrite the hours rules in 2003. The 2003 regulation was entirely vacated by the court in July 2004, but a one-year congressional extension allowed the agency to work on a revision with the struck-down rule in place.

FMCSA issued a new rule in 2005, making almost no changes to the previously voided rule, but making modifications to the provisions governing sleeper berth use.

OOIDA had challenged these rules, saying they were too inflexible and created an unsafe driving environment, but that challenge was rejected by the court.

By Transport Topics

Truck Accidents
-An Overview

A traffic accident involving a commercial truck, such as an eighteen-wheeler or other large freight carrier, can be much more catastrophic than an ordinary car accident. A typical fully-loaded large commercial truck can weigh 80,000 pounds or more, while an average passenger automobile weighs approximately 3000 pounds. Because of this size disparity, and due to the basic laws of physics, any collision between a commercial truck and another vehicle is likely to result in serious, even fatal, injuries. While statistics show that truck drivers are generally much more careful on the road than automobile drivers, and thankfully the incidence of fatal crashes involving trucks and other large vehicles has declined in recent years, large truck crashes still accounted for 5350 fatalities and 133,000 injuries in 2001.

The unique danger posed by commercial truck accidents can be made worse depending on the nature of the freight the truck is carrying. For example, if hazardous or flammable materials are on board, secondary injuries attributable to such dangerous cargo can result, including burns and respiratory injuries.

In the event that you or a loved one is involved in an accident with a commercial truck, you may be entitled to recover compensation for your injuries by bringing a legal claim against the responsible parties. This article will provide an overview of such a claim.

Deadly Truck Accident

Many truck accidents result in substantial property damage or personal injury, including broken bones, brain injury, brain injury or death.

Large trucks, including tractor trailers, with a gross weight more than 10,000 pounds account for a disproportionately large share of traffic deaths based on miles traveled. Fatalities from 18 wheelers or tractor trailer crashes have increased approximately 10 percent from 1995 through 1998, moving up from 4,918 deaths in 1995 to 5,374 deaths in 1998. The 5.374 deaths in 1998 represented thirteen percent of all traffic fatalities.

The fatal crash rate for semi-trucks is 2.6 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This staggering statistic is more than 50 percent greater than the rate for all vehicles on the roads. Tractor trailers and large trucks (including 18 wheelers) are also more likely to get into multiple vehicle accidents, nearly 80 percent of all large truck accidents involve more than one vehicle

"Since the late 1970s, approximately 12 to 13 percent of all traffic-related fatal crashes were the result of a crash involving a large truck."

Federal regulations allow drivers of large trucks to drive up to 16 hours a day. However, drivers under the regulations can compile 60 hours in less than five days by alternating ten hours of maximum permitted continuous driving with the minimum eight hours off duty. Surveys reveal that many drivers of 18 wheelers violate the regulations on hours of service.

Studies also show that driver fatigue plays a role in tractor trailer wrecks and that drivers are more likely to crash after many long hours of driving. (IIHS) The Department of Transportation has recently adopted a new version hours-of-service rules. However, consumer groups and highway safety advocates believe the trucking industry weakened the change to a degree that still will allow fatigued truckers on the road.

Trucking Accident Statistics

---

• An average of about 5,000 trucks are involved in a fatal traffic accident each year.
• Tractors pulling one semi trailer are the most common truck configuration, accounting for about 60% of all trucks involved in a fatal accident.
• Texas, California, and Florida had the greatest number of truck involvements over the period 1996 to 2000.
• The number of persons killed in accidents involving a truck decreased to 5,567 in 2000, compared with an average of 5,647 from 1997-1999.
• The number of truck drivers killed in traffic accidents increased from 658 in 1998 to 713 in 2000.
• About 360 pedestrians and 70 bicyclists are killed each year in traffic accidents involving trucks.

  ---