A Truck Driver Comments on Hours of Service Rules

Usually reader comments appear in a blog just as an attachment to the blogger’s post, and sort of get lost in the shuffle.  However, this morning I received a comment from a seasoned truck driver named Andrew about the recent court ruling on hours of services rules that should stand on its own. 

As a truck driver, I know from personal experience that the old 10/15 rule was much better for the health and safety of drivers and motoring public. A great deal is known about sleep now and, by far, the greatest danger stems from the fact that drivers are yanked all over the clock dial by shippers/recvrs who want to get drivers in doors for loading/unloading at all hours of the night and day. Driving at night is unnatural, unhealthy and risky, especially between about 02:00 and daybreak (red-zone). If we as a society want to make really substantial gains in highway safety, red-zone driving will need to be outlawed. Recent piddly-wink adjustments will yield only slight benefits.

That is right in line with what other truck drivers have been telling me for years, and with what I have seen of some of the worst trucking accidents.

Amen, Andrew!

The Shigley Law Firm  represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a “SuperLawyer” in Atlanta Magazine and one of the “Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks.