On October 1, 2005, a revised but still dangerous trucking hours-of-service rule went into effect, placing in harm’s way truck drivers and passenger vehicle occupants on the highways.

The new rule allows truck drivers to drive up to 11 consecutive hours per day, ignoring studies that prove that concentration and driving skills are dangerously impaired after 8 hours of consecutive driving. Additionally, the new rule contains a drive and rest cycle of less than 24 hours, disregarding the human body’s reliance on a 24-hour biological cycle. More than 5,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries in large truck crashes occur each year, and a major cause of these crashes is trucker fatigue.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is delaying enforcement of its new rules until the end of 2005. Until January 2006, FMCSA enforcement personnel, and state enforcement personnel can choose not to enforce the new rules. This irresponsible decision puts all drivers and passengers, including truck drivers, at serious risk.

Outraged by FMCSA’s failure to produce a safe and reasonable hours-of-service rule, Public Citizen has partnered with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Parents Against Tired Truckers, and the Trauma Foundation in submitting a petition of reconsideration outlining the new law’s dangerous inadequacies and asking the agency to fix the rule.

To read an HOURS OF SERVICE TRAVELERS ALERT please follow this link: http://www.citizen.org/documents/HOSalert.pdf
Follow this link to read the full petition for reconsideration: http://www.citizen.org/documents/2005_Peition_for_R.pdf
To read about the rule’s effects on drivers please follow this link: http://69.63.136.213/documents/hours-of-servicebrochure.pdf
Further information can be found at the site listed below: http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?id=2066