hosfamilies
October 7, 2011
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
VIA FAX: 202-456-2461
Dear President Obama:
As parents, spouses and children who have had loved ones needlessly killed or seriously injured in truck crashes caused by fatigued truck drivers, we are writing to request urgent adoption of necessary and lifesaving reforms to the current Hours of Service (HOS) rule for truck drivers proposed by Secretary Ray LaHood at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The current rule allows truckers to drive and work hours that are excessively long, contribute to fatigue and threaten the lives of truck drivers as well as the lives of families who share the roads with big trucks. Reasonable changes to the current rule will reduce driver fatigue, decrease crashes by tired truckers, save taxpayer money and make our roads and highways safer for everyone.
Each one of us has lived through a personal tragedy resulting from a truck driver who never should have been on the road. We are just a few of the approximately 3,000 families who have been forced to endure a tragic, sudden death and the 100,000 people who have suffered debilitating and costly injuries due to truck crashes every year. We are all painfully aware that driver fatigue has been cited as a major cause of crashes by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The current HOS rule allows many truckers to drive up to 77 hours a week, and long-haul drivers up to 88 hours a week as well as perform non-driving work beyond those limits. This means that some truckers work more than twice the normal 40-hour work week of most Americans, often pushing themselves beyond their limits. Under the current HOS rule 65 percent of drivers report that they often or sometimes felt drowsy while driving and 48 percent said they had fallen asleep while driving in the previous year.Because this is happening while they are in control of loads weighing 80,000 lbs. or more, and while they are operating at highway speeds alongside families in small passenger vehicles, the results can be catastrophic.
The DOT proposed rule will improve safety by reducing the maximum consecutive hours that truck drivers can drive in one sitting. This would reduce the amount of time drivers are exposed to the highest truck crash rate, and especially during the time that drivers are often most fatigued. The 10-hour limit on consecutive hours of driving was in place for more than 70 years and there is no legal or scientific justification for DOT to permit more than 10-consecutive hours of driving in a daily shift.
The pending changes will also improve safety by requiring the most fatigued truck drivers, those who drive continuously and use up their driving hours as quickly as possible, to take more than the minimum 34-hour rest time after driving as much as 88 hours in a week. There is no safety reason to permit tired truckers to take as few as 34-hours off duty -- less than a day and a half -- after operating for long hours week in and week out.
The Bush Administration HOS rule permitting tired truckers to drive and work longer hours not only defies commonsense and well-documented research and scientific data, but it also was overturned in two unanimous back-to-back decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia which remanded the rule to the agency to be revised. In the first case the court ruled that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) had ignored the impact of the longer hours on driver health as well as safety. The Court stated that DOT’s decision to allow longer driving hours was at odds with the underlying facts that crash risk increases and safety declines when truckers are permitted to drive for more hours. In fact, six federal appellate judges in two cases have found the Bush Administration HOS rule arbitrary and capricious.
Trucking interests have misleadingly claimed that the current HOS rule is responsible for recent reductions in truck crash deaths when there is no evidence or data supporting that position. Recent decreases in truck crash deaths are primarily the result of improvements in automobile safety and challenging economic times. During the first two years of the current HOS rule, 2004 and 2005, truck crash deaths actually went up but trucking interests have conveniently failed to mention that statistic.
The changes in the proposed HOS rule will add to the economic recovery by increasing trucking industry payrolls by an estimated 40,000 jobs. Also important to note is that a portion of these jobs will likely go to small businesses – the owner operator independent drivers who make up a large percentage of carriers.
Truck crashes not only exact a significant personal toll on families like ours but also an enormous financial burden. In 2009 the cost of fatal large truck crashes was approximately $19.6 billion, and this figure does not include costs associated with injuries, which significantly outnumber fatalities, including physical damage to vehicles, freight cleanup, congestion costs and lost time. We can’t bring back our loved ones but we want to make sure other families are spared the suffering ours have had to endure. The proposed rule will save lives, improve driver health, reduce costs to society and provide jobs. We ask that you move forward and adopt the improved rule. It is a “win-win” for safety, the economy and families.
Thank you for your time and attention to this important public health and safety issue.
Sincerely,
Daphne Izer, Founder, Parents Against Tired Truckers
Steve Izer, Board Member, Parents Against Tired Truckers
Lisbon, Maine
Son Jeffrey and three other teenagers were killed in a crash caused by a tired trucker.
Jane Mathis, Board Member, Parents Against Tired Truckers and Member, FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee
St. Augustine, FL
Son David and his wife Mary Kathryn were killed when a truck driver, who had fallen asleep behind the wheel, rear-ended their car setting it on fire.
Bruce King
Dawn King, Board Member, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways
Davisburg, MI
Dawn’s father, Bill Badger, was killed by a tired trucker who fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into his car.
Patricia Liberatore
Lawrence Liberatore, Board Member, Parents Against Tired Truckers
Severn, MD
Son Nick was killed by a fatigued truck driver who veered across 3 lanes of traffic and ran over his car.
Nikki Hensley, Board Member, Parents Against Tired Truckers
Fostoria, OH
Husband Virgil was killed when a fatigued truck driver ran a stop sign and crashed into his car.
Gary Wilburn
Linda Wilburn, Board Member, Parents Against Tired Truckers
Weatherford, OK
Son Orbie was killed instantly when a tired truck driver slammed his semi into the rear of Orbie’s car doing an estimated 75 miles per hour. Orbie’s car exploded on impact.
Paul Badger
Davidson, NC
Father, Bill Badger, was killed by a tired trucker who fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into his car.
Kate Brown
Gurnee, IL
Son Graham was hit by a drunk, drugged and fatigued truck driver who fell asleep and swerved into the oncoming lane, hitting Graham’s car and sending it airborne into a field.
Jackie Novak
Hendersonville, NC
Son Charles “Chuck” Novak and his girlfriend Theresa Seaver, were two of five people who died in a crash when a fatigued, speeding tractor-trailer crashed into a line of cars stopped due to an earlier crash.
Michelle Novak
Franklinville, NY
Nephew Charles “Chuck” Novak and his girlfriend Theresa Seaver, were two of five people who died in a crash when a fatigued, speeding tractor-trailer crashed into a line of cars stopped due to an earlier crash.
Ed Slattery
Baltimore, MD
Wife Susan and sons Peter and Matthew were hit by a truck driver who had fallen asleep behind the wheel. Susan was killed and Peter and Matthew were critically injured.
Ron Wood
Washington, DC
Mother Betsy Wood, sister Lisa Wood Martin and nephews Chance, Brock and Reid Martin, were killed just outside Sherman, Texas when a tractor trailer driver fell asleep behind the wheel and crossed a median into oncoming traffic, killing a total of ten people and injuring two more.
Please reply to the Truck Safety Coalition, John Lannen, Executive Director, jlannen@trucksafety.org, 703.294.6404.
cc: The Honorable Ray LaHood
The Honorable Anne Ferro
