Industry attempting to void new rules through courts, Congress  The June 7 crash on the New Jersey Turnpike that critically injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed entertainer James McNair has once again put the issue of hours-of-service regulations front and center, this time not only for the trucking industry and its workers but for the nation as a whole. Morgan was injured and McNair was killed when a Wal-Mart truck driven by one Kevin Roper allegedly struck the limousine carrying Morgan and McNair. Roper has been charged with vehicular homicide and has pleaded not guilty. The accident, tragic as it was, also included an element of irony. Legislation that would have relaxed the work-hour restrictions on truck drivers was being considered at the very same time in the United States Congress. The New Jersey State Police has alleged that Roper had not slept for over 24 hours before the accident. Four other accidents under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board involved circumstances in which truck drivers struck slower traffic ahead, said Don Karol, director of NTSB’s highway safety office, in a blog post. Although the agency examines only a small fraction of highway accidents each year, the latest accident was disconcerting enough for the NTSB to send a team to New Jersey investigate. The latest version of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s hours-of-service regulations were first announced in December 2011 and took effect on July 1, 2013. The American Trucking Associations and other industry groups sued to void the regulations, arguing that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) lacked the authority to enact such regulations. Late last year, a Federal appeals court sided with the government. The rules limit the average work week for truck drivers to 70 hours, decreasing that from the previous  maximum of 82 hours. The rules allow truck drivers who reach the maximum 70 hours of driving within a week to resume work if they rest for 34 consecutive hours, including at least two nights of sleep between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. The rules also required truck drivers to take a 30-minute break during the first eight hours of a shift and retained the previous limit of 11 hours of daily driving limit and a 14-hour work day. The FMCSA claimed that the purpose of the regulatory changes was “to ensure that all truck operators have adequate rest.” “Only the most extreme schedules will be impacted,” said an FMCSA statement at the time the rules took effect, “and more than 85 percent of the truck driving workforce will see no changes.” The FMCSA also estimated that the new regulations will save 19 lives, prevent 1,400 crashes and 560 injuries each year, and result in $280 million in savings from fewer large truck crashes and $470 million in savings from improved driver health. The trucking industry complained that the rule’s requirements for scheduling rest breaks at night forced more trucks onto the road during the day, causing more congestion and higher shipping costs for consumers. The FMCSA countered that the rule was designed to provide the drivers with rest when their systems needed it the most. After the industry lost the legal action in federal court, it turned to the Congress to undo the changes in the hours-of-service rules, and found a willing audience. The very day of the New Jersey Turnpike accident, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to strip funding from the enforcement of the 34-hour restart provision while ordering the FMCSA to study the impact of the change. The amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), stated that the new rules have had “unintended consequences that are not in best interest of carriers, shippers and the public.” The amendment is attached to a Senate bill appropriating transportation funds for fiscal year 2015. It must pass the full Senate and the House of Representatives before being forwarded to the president for his signature, or veto. The trucking industry argues that it is already doing a good job of reducing accidents, and cites  government data that the number of people killed each year in large truck crashes has fallen 25 percent, from 5,282 in 2000 to 3,921 in 2012, the latest year for which the FMCSA has released data. While these figures are accurate, the same data shows that truck fatalities increased in 2012 over 2011.  In 2012, 3,921 people were killed and 104,000 people injured in crashes involving 330,000 large trucks of over 10,000 pounds, according to FMSCA statistics released last month. This represents a four-percent increase from 3,781 in 2011. Of these fatalities in 2012, 73 percent were occupants of other vehicles, 10 percent were non-occupants, and 18 percent were occupants of large trucks. Between 2011 and 2012, fatalities in these crashes showed a 5-percent increase in the number of occupants of other vehicles killed and a nine-percent increase in the number of large-truck occupants killed. The number of non-occupants killed decreased by 11 percent. In 2012, there were 104,000 people injured in crashes involving large trucks, an increase of 18 percent from 88,000 in 2011. Of those injured in 2012, 73 percent were occupants of other vehicles, three percent were non-occupants, and 24 percent were truck occupants.  In 2012 large trucks were more likely to be involved in fatal multiple-vehicle crashes as opposed to a fatal single-vehicle crash than were passenger vehicles. Seventy-eight percent of the fatal crashes involving large trucks occurred on weekdays, and, of those, 72 percent occurred between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Earlier this year, a Washington State University study found that the new rules are effective at combating driver fatigue. The researchers found that drivers who took more overnight breaks during the restart period “experienced fewer lapses of attention, reported less sleepiness while on duty, and maintained their lane position better than those with only one nighttime period in their restart.” But the American Trucking Associations counters the conclusions of the university study. According to Dave Osiecki, the ATA’s head of policy and regulatory affairs, because the new rules require all drivers to restart their week with rest periods that end at 5 a.m., they can no longer stagger the beginning of their new work day. Instead they are required to start work as the morning rush hour begins. “That’s a higher safety risk because crash risk is higher in the morning hours,” Osiecki said. Proponents of the current, more stringent hours-of-service rules wasted no time in making political hay of the New Jersey accident that killed McNair and injured Morgan. In a letter to U.S. House of Representatives members sent two days after the accident, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa opposed two amendments to the fiscal year 2015 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill claiming they “will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks.” “The tragic accident that claimed the life of comedian James McNair and injured many others including actor Tracy Morgan, could have been prevented had Wal-Mart’s driver been properly rested rather than reportedly going 24 hours without a break,” Hoffa wrote. “While the notoriety of the victims in this accident pushed truck safety to the front page, more than 4,000 lives are claimed each year on our highways as a result of accidents involving trailer trucks.” Hoffa also claimed that the latest was the ninth for Wal-Mart’s trucking fleet in the last two years. “Not all motor carries run their drivers to the limit of their hours-of-service, but it does happen,” Hoffa said. “Drivers feel pressure from their employers to drive more than 60-70 hours a week with insufficient rest.” For its part Wal-Mart denied the implication that its driver was working for 24 hours straight. “It is our belief that Mr. Roper was operating within the federal hours of service regulations,” said David Tovar, Wal-Mart’s vice president of communications, in a statement.  The ATA’s position is that while driver fatigue is an issue, other safety issues are more important and should be getting more attention. “The hours-of-service rules only place limits on driving and on-duty time and require that between work periods drivers take a minimum of 10 consecutive hours off-duty,”  said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. “But they do not dictate what drivers do during that off-duty period. No rule can address what a driver does in his or her off-duty time. The industry strongly believes that drivers must take advantage of their off-duty periods for rest and that drivers should not drive if they are fatigued.” Graves also termed the new restart provision “controversial and unjustified” and claimed that it “alters driver sleep patterns and puts more trucks on the road during more risky daylight hours.” “We support mandatory use of electronic logging devices to track drivers’ compliance with the hours-of-service requirements,” he added. “We also support more aggressive enforcement of traffic laws to combat distracted and aggressive driving as well as restricting the speeds of large trucks to 65 mph with mandatory electronic speed governors. Fatigue, while an important safety issue, is a causal factor in less than 10 percent of all truck crashes. ATA believes we need to do far more to address the other 90 percent of crashes.”