Events Calendar
In This Section
AutoZone to replace Blockbuster in West Akron
Panel says banks underpaying government to exit bailout
May trade deficit unexpectedly drops to $26 billion
GM reportedly emerges from bankruptcy
New General Motors to fire up its engine
Smucker CEO pay up 23% in 2009
Wal-Mart settles $17.5 million discrimination suit
Modest gains follow Alcoa success
Most Read Stories
Akron police investigate teen mob attack on family
Man found hanging at playground in Stow
Family is proud of late son's gift
Man shot in back near Akron park
Varejao's $50 million deal isn't really $50 million
Woman, 75, charged with beating fawn to death
Akron woman found dead at Brimfield Township store
Man shot outside his Akron home during robbery attempt
Blogs:
Pets:
Sly children fool exercise study by using dogs
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Dwayne Wade says no to Cleveland
Akron Zips:
Opponent outlook: Kent State
Browns Bulletin:
Quick thought on Browns rookies
Tribe Matters:
Now is no time to quit
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth test showed marijuana
Kent State Sports:
Men's Basketball Scheduling update
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Andy’s Signed According to ESPN
All Da King's Men:
Baby Got Barack !
Blog of Mass Destruction:
As California Goes?
Akron Law Café:
Why do public officials violate Ohio Ethics Laws?
Varsity Letters:
Report: Ontko selects Wisconsin
See Jane Style:
Oh Baby!
Car Chase:
Where do We Go from Here?
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Closings….Not the Good Kind!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Margy inquires-when is a Taste of Hudson?
Sound Check:
LeVert II live performance Saturday night — "Dedication" album due July 13,
HRLite House:
DDI One of Best Places to Work
Akron Gamer:
Video game sales drop in May
Using electronic logs of trucker driving time called big safety boost
By Rick Romell Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Published on Sunday, Aug 26, 2007
MILWAUKEE: Most truckers play by the rules.
Mile for mile, they have fewer accidents than drivers of cars. When a car and truck collide in serious accidents, it's usually the car driver's fault.
But every day, a significant percentage of commercial truck drivers disregard the rules that are supposed to limit how long they work. Every month, surveys have indicated, one in eight long-haul truckers dozes at the wheel. Every year, hundreds of people die in crashes involving tired truck drivers.
All of which has critics of trucking regulatory policies ar Please see Truck, D4
guing that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should scrap the paper logbooks in which truckers record their hours of work and rest. Instead, the critics say, the safety administration should order the use of an electronic system that the agency itself estimates would cut violations of hours rules in half.
''It's kind of ludicrous that we're still using paper logs,'' said Kristen A. Monaco, an economist at California State University-Long Beach, who has studied the trucking industry. ''The paper logbooks are just way too easy to fudge.''
Many agree. Favoring electronic logs are safety advocates, insurance companies, some of the largest trucking firms, the National Transportation Safety Board and the officers who enforce trucking regulations on the highways. They want the government to follow the example of Europe, where new trucks must have electronic equipment that tracks drivers' hours.
The Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed a sweeping requirement for such gear in 2000, but withdrew it three years later, citing ''insufficient economic and safety data, coupled with a lack of support from the transportation community.''
The agency now says that while electronic logging would reduce rule-breaking, it hasn't been proved to significantly reduce accidents.
''A presumption has been made that (electronic log) use leads to better safety performance by carriers and drivers,'' said Dave Osiecki, vice president of safety, security and operations for the American Trucking Associations, the industry's leading trade group. ''However, there is little, if any, empirical evidence to support that position.''
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says electronic logs are no more accurate than paper, and the technology would invade drivers' privacy. The group also says the accident rate at a large company that uses electronic logging exceeds that of several peers.
But in the eyes of people such as Gerald Donaldson, the safety administration is all but abrogating its responsibilities with its proposal to require electronic logs only for a handful of companies that are particularly egregious violators.
''It would be difficult to construct a more irresponsible approach to a technology that can help control hours-of-service violations, reduce fatigue and help improve driver health,'' said Donaldson, senior research director with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, at a hearing in March. ''This proposed rule is so utterly ludicrous, so contemptuous of the need to curtail the epidemic of drivers falsifying their logbooks so they can drive until they literally fall asleep at the wheel.''
The total number of highway deaths linked to trucker fatigue is debated but appears to be in the hundreds annually.
A 1990 safety board study of accidents that killed truck drivers found that 31 percent involved fatigue. That rate would mean truck-driver fatigue played a role in killing 250 of the 805 truckers who died in traffic crashes last year, to say nothing of the other 4,213 people killed in large-truck accidents.
In a December 2002 report, consultants to the motor carrier safety administration estimated that trucker fatigue plays a role in 8.15 percent of fatal crashes involving large trucks. That would translate to more than 400 highway deaths a year.
In crashes involving a car and a large truck that kill or injure someone, car drivers usually are at fault. But the raw number of deaths in large-truck accidents an average of 5,200 a year in the past decade remains too high, many say.
''There's a benefit to some carriers and some drivers to disobey the rules,'' said Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The safety administration probably won't issue final regulations on electronic logs for months, if not longer. Those rules are unlikely to end the debate, which could intensify as the ranks of the 1.7 million truckers on the highways grow by 200,000 to 300,000 by 2014.
MILWAUKEE: Most truckers play by the rules.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
