U.S. Rules Seek to Stem Truck Crashes

Striving to reduce fatigue-related truck crashes that snarl freeways and claim hundreds of lives a year, federal safety regulators Thursday announced new requirements that truckers get more rest.

The amount of rest required per workday would increase to 10 hours from eight. But the Transportation Department rules would also permit one hour a day of additional driving, for a total of 11 hours.

However, in a move that angered safety groups, federal regulators decided not to require trucking companies to install onboard electronic recorders to deter drivers from cheating on work limits.

Regulators said they may call for recorders in the future, but that current technology was not ready for widespread use.

“Clearly there is an enforcement problem [with logbooks],” said Annette Sandberg, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. “But the science and the data weren’t there to mandate [recorders].”

The trucking industry supported the new rules, but safety groups were critical. The existing rules have been in effect since 1939.

Truck crashes are one of the most contentious highway safety issues, pitting a powerful and vital industry against advocacy groups representing other drivers. Large trucks make up about 4% of registered vehicles, but account for 12% of highway fatalities. In fatal crashes involving trucks and cars, 98% of the people killed are in cars.

According to preliminary government figures, 4,902 people were killed in truck crashes last year, a 3.5% decline from 2001.

The trucking industry said the new rules were fair.

“It will allow us to meet the real world operational needs of the trucking industry, and most importantly, to do so safely,” said Bill Graves, president of the American Trucking Assns.

But safety groups doubted there would be much improvement.

Gerald Donaldson of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said he expected the new rules to be “a wash.”

Onboard recorders, which log how long a truck has been in operation and how fast it has been driven, should be required, said Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board during the Clinton administration. “It’s like the Securities and Exchange Commission allowing a public company without requiring auditors,” said Hall, noting that many drivers falsify their logbooks.

Sandberg said her agency will launch a research effort to evaluate the use of on-board recorders, which are standard on many transit buses.

While the government’s own estimates projected a modest benefit from the new rules -- at most 75 lives saved per year -- Sandberg took issue with critics.

She said the main improvement is that truckers will now have a chance to get eight hours of sleep.

Ellen Engleman, chairwoman of the NTSB, agreed the new rules would be an improvement. “The key is having that additional rest period,” Engleman said. “That allows a driver to take a shower and get that eight hours of needed sleep. We see that as a significant step for safety.”

Engleman said the NTSB would continue to press for onboard recorders.

“This appears to be a compromise among the many factors you have to consider given the public debate,” she said.

The new rules will take effect in January, after a national campaign to educate drivers, police and state highway safety officials.