Senior Reporter
Driver Fatigue Makes NTSB’s 2016 Top Issues List
WASHINGTON — Policymakers and industry stakeholders need to put in place programs designed to reduce fatigue among truckers on the roads and other commercial operators while on duty, the National Transportation Safety Board announced Jan. 13.
In an annual list of “most wanted” safety concerns, NTSB noted that investigations of major crashes in recent years found fatigue as the likely cause, key factor, or one of the circumstances that led to fatal accidents on highways and other transportation sectors.
To address fatigue, the agency would like to see commercial carriers equip their vehicles with electronic logging devices that accurately collect data from a driver’s hours of service. Also, companies should establish risk-management programs and monitor those programs’ effectiveness in reducing fatigue-related accidents.
.@NTSB Chairman Hart announces 2016 Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements #NTSBmwl pic.twitter.com/cSoY0bPCJ1
— NTSB (@NTSB) January 13, 2016 “Fatigue and medical fitness for duty are also multimodal concerns that take their toll not only on highways, but throughout all transportation modes. The basic problem here is that most commercial transportation is 24/7 but humans are not,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart told reporters.
Asked about an ongoing study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the suspended 2013 HOS rules for truckers, Hart added, “The hours-of-service rules are a very critical piece of the total puzzle, and we’re looking at that as one of the many success stories from this ‘most wanted’ list. … We’ve been pushing fatigue and rest and duty time rules for quite some time. But it is only a part of it.”
A fiscal 2016 funding law directed FMCSA to report to Congress on how the HOS restart rule delivers improvements “in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health” and work schedules.
The restart rule was suspended upon enactment of a 2014 funding law. Under the 2013-2014 rule’s version, truck drivers had to take off from 1 to 5 a.m. on consecutive days during a 34-hour restart. The suspension means that truckers had to adhere to the June 2013 version of HOS restart.
