NTSB Says Driver Fatigue at the Root of Fatal Oklahoma Truck Wreck

Image by C.P.Storm via FlickrThe National Transportation Safety Board has determined that driver fatigue stemming from acute sleep loss was to blame in a multi-vehicle crash that claimed 10 lives in Oklahoma last year.

On June 26, 2009, a truck driven by Donald L. Creed, 76, of Willard, Mo., plowed into a line of stopped vehicles on I-44 about 90 miles east of Tulsa, killing 10 vehicle occupants and injuring six others, including himself.

Federal investigators say the driver was suffering from fatigue caused by circadian disruption associated with the driver's work schedule. The NTSB says Creed likely had less than five hours of sleep prior to beginning his work shift at 3 a.m. At the time of the crash, he had been on the road for more than 10 hours. Creed, who suffers from mild sleep apnea, failed to react to slowing and stopped traffic. He never applied brakes or performed any evasive maneuvers to avoid colliding with the traffic queue, the NTSB noted in its crash report, released Tuesday.

Among factors cited by NTSB as contributing to the severity of the crash are the truck's high impact speed and its structural incompatibility with passenger vehicles. It was traveling at 69 mph in a 75-mph area.

Investigators identified several major safety issues associated with this crash, and has issued recommendations intended to prevent future occurrences, and to improve future crash investigations.

Among them:

* The need for updated and comprehensive fatigue education materials and fatigue management programs;

* The need for a better understanding of the significance of heavy vehicle collision forces in crashes with smaller vehicles.

* Mandate the installation of electronic and video event recorders on commercial motor vehicles over 10,000 pounds and set performance standards for those devices.

The NTSB also reiterated previous recommendations to develop standards and require deployment of collision warning systems on new commercial vehicles, to require energy-absorbing under-ride protection for trucks, and to develop technologies to reduce fatigue-related accidents. In total, the NTSB issued nine new and six reiterated safety recommendations with this report.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=71776

Good news on trucking deaths

The number of truck-involved traffic fatalities declined 20 percent in 2009, dropping from 4,245 in 2008 to 3,380 in 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Sept. 9.
The reduction is the lowest level in recorded Department of Transportation history and also shows a 33 percent decrease in fatalities since the generally current hours-of-service regulations first became effective in January 2004. 

http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2010/9/9/Truck-relatedtrafficfatalitiesdrop20lowestlevelinrecordedDOThistory.aspx

Trucking News in Congress

Image via WikipediaThe Wall Street Journal  has reported a push in congress is coming from 150 companies who want to make trucks 20% heavier. This would make the average truck go from 80,000 pds to 96,000 pounds. The longer heavier trucks would increase the blind areas or "no zones" around the tractor trailer as well as making them harder to stop. While trucks may have increased breaking capacity, passenger cars and pickup trucks wont have any additional structural support added to withstand the impact from these monster trucks. Even if passenger cars were made to withstand these forces, it would be impossible to retrofit the 100's of millions of cars currently on the road.

In addition to consumer safety organizations that uniformly think this is a bad idea, OIDA (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association) has stated that the stability of a tractor trailer is "substantially reduced on bigger and heavier trucks." Rollovers are already the leading cause of truck driver deaths, this proposal would make one of the most deadly professions worse. One government official, a truck inspector, was quoted in the WSJ article as stating the idea is "insane."

Safety Group wants Hours of Service Reduced

Image by toshism via Flickr

Daily driving time under a new Hours of Service rule should be reduced by 27 percent, a document filed by a group of safety advocates reveals.
 

The document, filed by Henry Jasny on behalf of the Truck Safety Coalition, Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, was posted last week on the www.regulations.gov and is one of over 300 documents related to the new rule.

Under the heading Daily Shift Drive Time Maximum, the document reads: “[There should be] No more than eight consecutive hours of driving per shift, based on extensive research findings that show dramatic increase in relative risk of crashes after eight consecutive hours of driving.” 

The document lists basic safety parameters for a new rule:

• 24 hour-circadian schedule

• Lower daily driving and work time limits

• Lower weekly driving and work time maximums

• Increased daily off-duty time, including in sleeper berths

• Increased end-of-week rest time

• Recognition of safety hazards of night-time driving, and

• Universal electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) equipment. 

 

The coalition said it wants to see a maximum of 40 driving hours in a seven-day period and a maximum of 60 hours of work time in a seven-day period.

FMCSA Defends the new Safety Act

Image via Wikipedia

The trucking industry’s top regulator says her agency is moving forward as planned with a long-awaited safety program, even as lawmakers and trucking representatives suggested the agency should focus more on getting the program right than on rolling it out on time.

Noting that a field test in nine states wraps up this month, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne Ferro on Tuesday told a House panel that preliminary findings show a 35 percent increase in investigations under Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010, meaning more carriers are being reached, and with greater efficiency.
 Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010, CSA 2010, is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce commercial motor vehicle (CMV)-related crashes, injuries and fatalities. It introduces a new enforcement and compliance model that allows FMCSA and its State partners to contact a larger number of carriers earlier in order to address safety problems before crashes occur. When the program is fully rolled out by the end of 2010, FMCSA will have a new nationwide system for making the roads safer for motor carriers and the public alike
The roll-out for CSA 2010 officially began in April with the carrier data preview, Ferro explained. As previously announced, the actual safety measurement system — in which carriers will be compared to industry peers —will be previewed in late August, followed by full public availability at the end of the year. Remaining components — warning letters, the intervention process and the new fitness determination rule — will continue to the end of fiscal year 2011, she added.


Source

Worn tires cause Wreck

A tractor-trailer accident on I-95 in Florida this past weekend, police said, was caused directly by completely bald steer axle tires.

The drive suffered only minor injuries in the single-vehicle accident, which occurred on I-95 near Fellsmere, Fla.

The Florida Highway Patrol said the Sunday morning accident happened when one of the steer tires – described as being worn down to the steel cords – blew out, causing the rig to pull into the median where it rolled onto its side.

Georgia: Trucking Wreck: Company had Poor Rating

The Alabama trucking company involved in a fatal crash that killed 11 people in Kentucky had a poor safety rating from federal regulators.
A woman stands with two little girls as they wait to go into the funeral for the Esh family in Marrowbone, Ky., Tuesday, March 30, 2010. The family was killed in a head-on interstate crash on March 26. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
Funeral home workers wait in the foreground as hundreds of mourners arrive for the funeral of the Esh family in Marrowbone, Ky., Tuesday, March 30, 2010. The family was killed in a head-on interstate accident on March 26. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
Mourners arrive for the funeral of the Esh family in Marrowbone, Ky., Tuesday, March 30, 2010. The family was killed in a head-on interstate crash on March 26. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gave Hester Inc. a rating of 88.4 in February based on inspections during the past 30 months. The agency uses a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the worst score. Any score of 75 or more is considered "deficient."

The rating is based on the roadside inspections and moving violations of Hester's 30 drivers.

Kentucky State Police say the driver of a tractor-trailer crossed the median of Interstate 65 in central Kentucky on March 26, slamming into a van and killing 11 people and himself.

Two young children survived the crash, which remains under investigation.