Kentucky Injury Law Blog

In December 2010, a new regulation was proposed that would limit the amount of time truck drivers can operate their vehicles to 10 hours. Currently the limit is 11 hours. While some safety groups, such as Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, favor the new regulation, other groups are questioning its usefulness or challenging it.

Advocates of the 10-hour limit believe it will reduce the number of truck accidents and fatalities. They say the roads will be safer because fewer truck drivers will fall asleep behind the wheel, and large amounts of money will be saved in medical costs and other accident-related expenses. Currently the trucking industry has the highest number of job-related deaths than any other profession. In 2009, truck accidents caused 3,380 deaths, down from 4,425 in 2008. Anne Ferro of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says about 50 truck accident deaths could be avoided each year if the 10-hour limit is imposed.

A man who lost his wife and had his two sons seriously injured in a truck accident last year supports the new regulation. The driver of a truck pulling three trailers fell asleep at the wheel and hit the car the family was traveling in on I-90 in Ohio. The father feels the accident could have been prevented if the driver had not been so fatigued. Unfortunately, according the trucking company’s records, the driver had been driving for less than 10 hours when the accident occurred, so the proposed regulation would not have stopped this accident and wrongful death from happening.

The ones most adverse to this change obviously are the trucking companies. They estimate a $1 billion loss in productivity if the new regulation is passed. Many companies are requesting exemptions from the rule before it is even accepted based on their individual situations. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association is requesting exemption for two reasons. They state the regulation shouldn’t apply to their drivers because they are not actually driving the whole time they are working. Typically cement truck drivers do not go further than 20 miles from the plant and they spend a large amount of time at the plant or the job site, which gets them out from behind the wheel for a significant portion of the work day. Also, once the concrete is mixed in the truck, it has to be used or it will start to set, making it impractical for a driver to call it a day after 10 hours if there is still cement left in the truck.