Non-English speaking driver causes wreck with train

http://www.gastongazette.com/onset?id=7465&template=article.html

About ten days ago, on July 20, 2007, a truck driver, who couldn’t speak English, got confused at a railroad crossing, and stopped his truck across the railroad tracks, where it was split open by an oncoming train. The crossing had signs, in English of course, which directs traffic to pull up past a second set of tracks when at the crossing. The driver could not read the signs, stopped in the tracks, and POWEEEE!!!! Luckily no one was hurt.

Using a driver who does not speak English is illegal. If the driver is pulled over by DOT, and he cannot converse in English sufficiently to satisfy the officer, he will be placed Out of Service. The driver will remain Out of Service, until he either learns English, or you get someone else out there to take his load. Naturally, there are going to be varying standards as to what is acceptable, as it will vary by each individual inspecting officer. Nevertheless, if you want to hire a driver, and you can’t converse normally with him, you are running the risk of having him placed OOS each and every time he crosses a scale. Press 1 for English!!!!!

________________________________________

Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Update on court-mandated Hours of Service change

On July 24, 2007, a US Court of Appeals vacated the FMCSA’s 11 hour rule, and the 34 hour reset provision of the 70 hour rule. In the interim, the FMCSA has issued the following guidance on what to do now:

“We are analyzing the decision issued today to understand the court’s findings as well as determine the agency’s next steps to prevent driver fatigue, ensure safe and efficient motor carrier operations and save lives. This decision does not go into effect until September 14, unless the court orders otherwise.”

There, doesn’t that make you feel better? Well, if nothing else, it clarifies that nothing changes until September 14, 2007. What will the rules be on September 15? No one knows exactly, but there is a very good chance it will be a 1) 10 hour driving limit, with a mandated 10 hour break, 2) the current 14 hour rule, and 3) no more than 70 hours on-duty in any consecutive 8 day period, no reset provision.

The over-the-road truckers realize that this will be a huge setback, in that they will not be able to work as many hours, or drive as many miles. It will dramatically effect the non-trucking operations as well. Whereas many of the local, non-trucking type companies never drive 11 or even 10 hours in one day, the elimination of the 70 hour reset provision will hurt everyone. What this means is that you must track how many hours your drivers get every day. On any given day, that driver cannot have more than 70 hours on-duty in the past seven days, plus today.

For example, let’s say a construction company normally works Monday through Friday, with a few hours on Saturday. A driver (who primarily works on jobsites operating equipment, but still drives a few hours each day) works 12 hours a day Monday – Friday. He works another 10 hours on Saturday. He is off on Sunday. Under the current rules, this driver may work a normal shift on the following Monday, with no restrictions, as he obtained 34 consecutive hours off-duty from when he stopped work on Saturday afternoon to early Monday morning. This resets his running 70 hour clock to zero. HOWEVER, under the rules without a reset provision, this driver will be unable to drive on Monday. Without a reset provision, you must always keep a running total of how many on-duty hours a driver has in the previous 7 days. In this case, he has 70 hours on duty in the previous 7 days. He has no hours to drive on Monday, or he will be over hours.

Under the current rules, most local, non-trucking companies, such as construction, landscapers, pavers, or local delivery companies never have to worry about 70 hour violations, as their drivers always get the weekends off, and they do not operate 70 hours during the week. That will all change with the elimination of the reset provision.

_________________________________________

Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.

Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.

MAJOR HOURS OF SERVICE RULES CHANGE!!!!!

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours of service rules, and imposed rules of their own. These changes, I believe, will become effective no sooner than September 14, 2007, but stay tuned, as that too may change.

Drivers may no longer drive 11 hours, they may now only drive 10 hours. Drivers must continue to use the 14 hour rule. Drivers may not reset their 70 hour clocks with a 34 hour reset period.

How did all of this happen? When the FMCSA made it first changes some years ago, as they were directed to by Congress, they moved to the 11, 14, and 70 hour rules, with the reset provisions. They were sued by the public advocacy groups. These are people who hate trucks, and believe that if there is one truck accident, it’s one accident too many, consequences be damned. The US Court of Appeals found that the FMCSA did not follow the law in implementing the new rules, and directed them to make changes. The FMCSA announced that there would be, in effect, no more split sleeper berth provision. The advocacy crazies were not satisfied with this, and sued again. The same US Court of Appeals has now ruled again, and found that again, the FMCSA did not follow the law in implementing the new rules, and has imposed its own rules.

Who is to blame for this fiasco? As much as I like to bash the FMCSA, it probably isn’t their fault, even though the court says it is. This is just a leftist court, which sees this as a naked attempt by the industry to lessen the safety standards which will kill more innocent women and children for profit. No matter what the agency would have done in promulgating these new rules, the court would have found fault. Also to blame are the Republicans in Congress. They had an opportunity to short-circuit this insanity by passing a law which would have established the new rules as the law of the land, thereby cutting off the courts, but they failed. You can’t expect the Democrats in Congress to pass such a bill, as they favor more restrictive hours of service rules.

So, once again, everyone has to go back to the drawing board, and try to make sense of the new rules. Carefully set up routes and contracts laid out with the hours rules in mind will have to be scrapped. Carriers have built new terminals in locations picked specifically with the 11 hour rule in mind. Those will have to be moved or closed. The bottom line is the new, more restrictive laws will not make the roads any safer. In fact, if you look at the documentation in the FMCSA rulemaking, it will make the roads more dangerous.

Stay tuned, this may not be the last word on this issue. There may be an appeal, but I am not optimistic about its chances. I strongly suspect that the FMCSA will just give up at this point and go with the new rules imposed by the courts.

_________________________________________

Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Mississippi Truck Driver Used Crack Before Deadly Crash

Source Story

At 12:30 Saturday afteroon, July 14, a tractor-trailer crossed the center-line of Hwy 425 near Pine Bluff, AR, crashing into a car, killing a family of five. After the accident, the driver admitted to using crack cocaine before the accident.

What’s the moral of this story?

Obviously you don’t want to hire an idiot like this, but sometimes you don’t realize a driver has a substance abuse problem until it’s too late. Make sure your drug and alcohol testing program is being done according to Hoyle. If, God forbid, you are involved in a big accident where your driver was under the influence, both DOT and plaintiffs’ attorneys are going to be crawling all over your drug and alcohol testing program. Make sure that it can pass muster, or they’ll blame you for this type of accident.

___________________________________________

Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.

No charges to be filed in the April 26, 2007 Indiana Toll Road crash

SOURCE: Chesterton Tribune

Authorities have decided not to charge the driver of the New England Motor Freight truck which plowed into stopped traffic, killing 8, on April 26, 2007, on I-80 in Indiana.

Apparently, the driver was fiddling around with his cellphone charger, and did not notice traffic had slowed until too late. The local prosecutor decided that negligent conduct does not rise to the level of criminal liability.

I have mixed feelings on this. The truck driver is going to feel guilt for the rest of his life, and putting him in jail isn’t going to bring back the dead. Still, 8 people are dead, and they shouldn’t be.

The prosecutor’s reasoning is that the driver made a mistake; that’s not criminal, play on. Had he been drinking, or over hours, then he would have prosecuted. Nevertheless, I would think that if you screwup badly enough (like in this case), you should be held responsible, regardless if you violated no other rules.

I don’t know if I blame the cellphone either. The thing beeped, the battery was low, and the driver made the mistake of trying to charge it while driving. Motor carriers do their best to discourage cellphone use while their drivers are driving, but there are numerous things that will distract you while driving, if you let them, such as the CB, the radio, smoking a cigarette, or drinking a soda. The bottom line is, drivers have to pay attention, and take responsibility for driving safely.

Teenagers Probably Texting At Time of Crash

http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/197234.html

Police suspect that cellphone use, or more specifically, text messaging, may be led to the 5 fatality crash on June 28 in Western New York. An SUV, with five teenage cheerleaders in it crossed the centerline, and impacted a tractor-trailer, bursting into flames, killing all five in the SUV. Investigators have discovered that the driver’s cellphone was full of text messages right about the time of the crash.

For those of unfamiliar with teenage text messaging, it is the continuous sending of inane messages, such as “what up”, “ok”, “you’re so fly”, etc. When my future stepkid gets his car in a few months, I’m making a rule: “no cellphone use while driving”. Yeah, I do it, as I’m sure most small businessmen do, but I rationalize it as ok, because I’ve had a lot more practice at it. Plus, I never text message, largely because I don’t know how to do it. It’s bad enough if you’re trying to dial a number while driving, envision trying to type out a message on a keyboard while driving. Much worse.

____________________________________________

Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.

New Rulemaking Issued By DOT

Drowning in DOT Paperwork

The FMCSA (aka the DOT) has issued a final rulemaking, which makes official a number of provisions which were contained in the last authorizing law dated 8-10-05, called the “Safe Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users”. (SAFETEA-LU).

(I kid you not, that’s what its called. Your Congress at work.)

What is this, and what does it mean? Once every five years or so, Congress must pass a law re-authorizing and re-funding FMCSA to do its regulatory work. When passing these laws, both FMCSA and industry special interest groups lobby Congress looking for all types of special handouts. FMCSA typically looks for as much funding as possible, so they may expand their agency. They also look for expanded authority and power, for the same reason. Industry groups try to get little exemptions inserted into the law, which may exempt them from hours of service rules, for example. This is why the regulations are 700 pages long, and getting longer and longer. DOT always adds words, they hardly ever subtract words.

What does it mean to you? Probably nothing.

Most of these changes have nothing to do with the main regulations, and who has to comply with them. The biggest change I see in there is that utility service drivers are exempt from the hours of service regulations. Also, drivers operating within a 100 air mile radius and transporting equipment to movie production sites must use the old 10 and 15 hour rules. Oh, and if you are transporting grapes in Western New York (west of I-81 only), within 150 miles of where the grapes were picked, before September 30, 2009, you are exempt from the hours of service rules. I’m not making that up!! If you transport grapes in Western New York, you are exempt from the hours rules, but only until 9-30-09. I don’t know, maybe Hillary Clinton likes grapes, or wine, or something.

The rule also increases DOT’s already ridiculously high penalties for violating Out of Service orders, and increases the ceiling on hazardous materials penalties. Will this mean that DOT will begin issuing even higher hazardous materials penalties? Maybe, but I doubt it. DOT also expanded its authority to cover virtually all commerce in the U.S., including intrastate commerce. Again, this probably means nothing to you, as most States have adopted all or virtually all of the Federal DOT regulations anyway. Well, there it is, don’t panic, 99.44% of you will be unaffected by this rulemaking.

SEE IT HERE.

_______________________________________________________

Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.

Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.