Truck driver fatigue increases crash risks
While driving down the road, you may have witnessed someone’s car swerve from its lane. You hold your breath, hoping it returns safely back to its place in the traffic pattern. But what happens when that vehicle is larger than a car? What if it is a heavy truck, hauling freight hundreds or thousands of miles? It might not make it back on the road due to driver fatigue.
It is becoming a more apparent issue, but efforts to protect truck drivers and other travelers on America’s roadways are often thwarted. In December 2011, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a new federal rule that reduced the maximum workweek for truckers to 70 hours and required drivers to take 34
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Critics said the new regulation placed more drivers on the road during heavy traffic times without addressing safety concerns, and the specific time periods have been suspended pending further research.
However, fatigued heavy truck driving is undoubtedly a safety concern. In its explanation of its December 2011 regulations, the Department of Transportation wrote: “Additionally, new research available on the subject demonstrated that long work hours, without sufficient recovery time, lead to reduced sleep and chronic fatigue. That fatigue leads drivers to have slower reaction times and a reduced ability to assess situations quickly…Too often, fatigued drivers fail to notice that they are drifting between lanes.”
Safety investigators told the New York Times that sleepy or drowsy driving is far more problematic than it is perceived to be. The exact number of accidents caused by heavy trucks is hard to come by. For example, a 2007 FMCSA Large Truck Crash Causation Study found, “Fatigue, drinking alcohol, and speeding are major factors in motor vehicle crashes overall,” but lumped falling asleep with being physically impaired for others reasons, such as a heart attack, all under the “non-performance” causes of
The current driver shortage didn't happen overnight, but to carriers facing the oncoming crisis that's coming - well, like a speeding truck - it can certainly feel that way. A "perfect storm" of detriments has created a void in the normal flow of potential drivers, from baby boomers eyeing retirement or alternate jobs that keep them closer to homes and families to millennials that consider the demands of truck driving a poor match for their desired lifestyle. In terms of truck-driving demographics, those edge-of-retirement baby boomers are also being pulled off the road by stiffer regulations on medical conditions like sleep apnea, which could affect alertness or even response time out on the road.
These are all reasons that can lead to distracted driving. Star Tribune writes that there are too many motorists killed or injured on the road which is "a clearly preventable problem." By incorporating this specific detail, Star Tribune conveys how they want a change to happen. This establishes a concerned tone. The specific detail was not needed; however, the detail was incorporated to express the Star Tribune's apprehension towards distracted driving accidents. Star Tribune explains that a bill introduced by Republican lawmakers would make it illegal to use a handheld device while on the road. If the bill goes into effect, it would start as early as July "about half way through the busy summer driving season." Star Tribune integrates this specific detail into their editorial to again elucidate the trepidation they feel about car accidents. Summer is a busy season and the bill getting put in place would save numerous lives. Star Tribune also explains that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration created new guidelines which ask makers and developers of electric devices to design their products to cut back on distractions while driving. The modification would disable functions "such as playing videos, text entry or internet browsing" while the device is in moving vehicle. Star Tribune adds this specific detail to ponder some problems behind driving accidents. By acknowledging the problems, Star Tribune expresses why the bill needs to
2,796 people were injured. There were also 17 deaths caused by distracted drivers in 2013.
No one can deny that driving drink has caused traffic deaths and injuries. Drunk driving is one of the most frequently committed crimes in the United States, killing someone approximately every 48 minutes. Drunk driving is “A time when humans willingly enter cages of glass and steel that move in such great numbers at such terrific speed, that subtle turn of the steering wheel can easily result in death” (Thomas). What possesses a person to get ...
Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...
Driver retention is an ongoing problem in the trucking industry. Driver turnover rates are always high. The problem with such a high turnover rate is attributed to many factors. Workplace environment, demographics, and driver’s quality of life seems to be the leading factor. There are factors that could lead to better retention among drivers. Most truckers want the family feel among drivers. Benefits is the leading factor to high turnover in the industry. Drivers want and need good benefit packages that include vacation, illness, and pension. When the companies make the driver feel more needed, then you will have a better and more
According to Wilson (2005), sleep deprivation can cause not only traffic accidents, but also medical conditions such as: obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabo...
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
Driving under the influence is extremely dangerous. Those who drink and drive tend to have an increased risk of car accidents, highway injuries, and vehicular fatalities. However, there are countless ways to prevent drunk driving. Professor David J. Hanson at the sociology department at the State University of New York states that “designated drivers have saved nearly 50,000 lives and spared many more thousands of people from suffering injury from drunk driving. It is a proven fact that almost 30 people in the US die every day in a motor vehicle accident involving a driver impaired by alcohol.” Every accident caused by drunk driving is one hundred percent preventable.
Truck driving is a difficult job which requires great responsibility of transferring the goods from one place to other far place with proper safety. Genuine CDL training is required by every aspiring truck driver to attain essential skills as a professional driver. These training programs are meant not only help the students learn about the possible ways to handle and manage their trucks in most adverse traffic and weather conditions, but also, this training helps them to learn how to prevent any major loss of the goods during the transference.
drivers travelling at high speeds on roads (Hartman). To conserve fuel and save lives, the
The biggest problem with drunk driving by young adults is the high rate of traffic accidents. Although young drivers ages 16 through 25 makeup only 15% of U.S. licensed drivers, they constitute 30 percent of all alcohol-related driving fatalities. This is double the amount of licensed drivers in that age group. Inexperience with both drinking and driving may contribute to this disproportionate rate. Nationwide in 1996, people ages 15 to 24 died in fatal motor vehicle crashes and 45 percent of those deaths were a result of alcohol (NHTSA 4). So it comes to no surprise that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States for people younger than 25 (NCHS 98).
Many people feel like they’ll be able to overcome their tiredness but truthfully you cannot fight your sleepiness especially while you are out on the road. Others believe that once they get on the road they’ll be able to wake up but that’s not always the case. Instead of pulling over their vehicles, many people chose to continue to drive while they are tired. This can be an extremely dangerous routine to adopt. According to researchers, many of the fatal crashes showed that the drivers were not getting enough sleep and were up longer than they need to be. Drivers that pulled over and took a nap were less likely to end up in a fatal accident (OH Editorial Staff). Some drivers also said that they didn’t feel too comfortable pulling over on the side of the road to take a nap because they felt it wasn’t safe (Yee 232). This can be true in some cases but people that feel this way would have to ask, would they rather take the chance of seriously injuring themselves?
"TEENS, SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND AUTOMOBILE CRASHES . N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014 (Farm Bureau News)
According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it is estimated that fatigue is a cause in 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths a year in the U.S.