The Jaws of Life had to be used to get a Nacogdoches man out of his wrecked Honda after being rear-ended by an 18 wheeler Wednesday afternoon on the Westside loop of 287 in Lufkin, Texas. The 18 wheeler’s negligence caused traffic to back up about a mile on the highway. Traveling the highways it appears to me that commercial vehicles on the Interstate are about equal to passenger vehicles. The safety of the public should be of paramount concern.
A lawsuit is currently pending to overturn a rule issued under the Bush administration in 2003 that allows truck driver’s to drive an 11-hour work day and reset their weekly limit by taking a 34-hour break. The Bush administration rule extended the drive time for truck drivers by one hour over the previous 10-hour limit and reduced the total work time to 14 consecutive hours from 15.
The American Trucking Association has filed a Motion to Intervene in the lawsuit, arguing to keep the Bush administration’s extended drive rule of 11 hours a day. Common sense would suggest that a truck driver allowed to work 14 consecutive hours of which 11 can be driving will result in a fatigued truck driver and a risk to the motoring public.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
