Truck driver fatigue has gotten increased attention in recent years as experts have been able to attribute more and more accident injuries and fatalities to Texas truck accidents. What follows are pertinent facts related to the burnout and exhaustion that come with driving long-distances across the country and lead to many truck wrecks in Texas.
*An average of nearly five thousand persons are killed annually in semi-truck accidents and a good part of those semi truck accidents occur in Texas. Additionally, another one hundred fifty thousand individuals sustain injuries of varying degree.
*One in four fatalities occur in a multi-vehicle collision with a semi-truck.
*According to research done by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) -fatigued truck drivers kill approximately 750 persons annually and cause another twenty thousand injuries. (Other organizations place the number of truck driver fatigue fatalities as the cause of somewhere between 30 - 40% of semi-truck accident deaths.
*Current federal regulations allow for a truck driver to be behind the wheel of a rig for ten consecutive hours before being required to take an eight-hour break.
The FMCSA is proposing rule changes that will require longer rest periods for drivers.
However, truck drivers and their respective companies have found numerous ways to subvert the rules - and the fatality statistics only further confirm how dangerous fatigued truck drivers are to everyone on the road. Many States such Texas have their own regulations for intra-state carriers.
Fortunately newer technology in the form of virtually tamper-proof electric on-board recorders is now being considered as required additions to semi-truck cabs. Let's hope our state and federal organizations keep the problem of truck driver fatigue at the forefront of the national consciousness.
I always advise my readers to drop a line to your legislators expressing your concern. Never take the regulation of trucks or its value in reducing truck accidents for granted.
