Extended hours of service increase fatigue and risk of truck accidents

In an effort to curb truck accidents that cause about 5,000 deaths per year, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued new Hours-of-Service rules that took effect October 1, which will “help keep drivers healthy and our roads safer,” according to Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta.

Yet critics argue that the new rules are detrimental to drivers, because the extended driving hours lead to fatigue. “Trucks are going to continue to be rolling time bombs on the highway,” according to Joan Claybrook, president of the safety group Public Citizen.

The new rules that took effect Oct. 1 allow short-haul operators who do not need a commercial drivers’ license to extend their workdays twice a week. They also retain the 2004 regulations that increased the number of continuous hours all truckers can drive in a 24 hour period to 11 from 10.

“The extended hours of operation create a scenario of sleep deprivation by limiting a driver’s daily sleep,” according to one report.

Driver fatigue results in reckless behavior, such as failure to keep in the proper lane and running off the road. Twenty to 40% of truck crashes and 30% of fatalities are caused by driver fatigue, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. One person dies every 16 minutes as a result of a truck accident somewhere in the U.S.