HOS, 34 Restart and WSU Sleep Study Report

Yeah, that study is flawed beyond belief. But, they have the degrees, so surely they are much smarter than us and we just cant comprehend that level of logic.

Either that or they're so full of it their eyeballs have turned brown!

You know they have to keep pumping out results, otherwise theyll turn off that govt research grant money!!! Thats probably the worst part of all of it. Our own pay checks go towards funding their trash.

 

I drive primarily at night myself! I am just sick and tired of these College idiots regulating my life. In the 30 years of driving I have had No accidents and one speeding ticket that was thrown out by the Judge. In the last 3 years of OTR driving, Only 1 warning! I would say that I drive responsibly! Now they are going to tell me how and when to drive! I think I could tell them a thing or two!

 

It just goes to show ya. You can get any numbers you want for any statisic that you want to prove, just skew the tests or data to your liking.

This has been going on for decades for any cause somebody wants forwarded.

That's why multiple reserach on any subject is important.

Thanks Injun, for bringing that little tidbit out.

 

I'm guessing the feds are trying to make the restart so prohibitive that very few will use it.

 

In preparation for the 2003 HOS changes, FMCSA itself cited a study or studies that concluded that working one night and sleeping the next then working the next night (i.e., a disrupted normal sleep pattern) was a good way to induce fatigue-related accidents. This is intuitively obvious--anyone can easily prove it to themselves.

Part of the problem is that "truck driver fatigue" is a bit of a social/political/legal football--the "tired driver" meme. Another, more serious part of the problem is that proving that a truck driver was fatigued is almost impossible after the fact. Can you sift the ashes of a burned driver and determine that he was tired? Can you look at a corpse and say that the guy was tired? "Out of hours" or "over hours" are often taken as prima facie evidence that a driver was/is tired. The recent OOIDA lawsuit in Minnesota shows the degree to which law enforcement will go to "prove" fatigue.

Another part of the problem is that TD fatigue can be a very real and dangerous thing; it was one of the original reasons for HOS. Who among us hasn't driven tired? Who hasn't been pushed by a dispatcher to "just get it there"? Who hasn't pushed themselves to "just get it there"?

I agree that this is not a simple-minded dumbed-down left vs. right issue. Actually, few issues are.

Fatigue played a role in the collision that lead to the founding of PATT, although the seeds of that fatigue were planted when a driver didn't rest --at home--as he normally did when he was at home. And PATT is part of the court-ordered reason for the current proposal and hearings.

At the Thursday hearings, ATA's representative pointed out that FMCSA has no comprehensive data to support their two-consecutive-midnight-to-six-a.m.-nights-off proposal. The study that FMCSA cites was conducted with TWELVE men, hardly a representative sample of the industry, and one that has no statistical validity.

 

perhaps most importantly, why the heck are they trying to change the rules for MILLIONS of truck drivers, based on the research findings from a study of about 3 dozen NON-TRUCKDRIVERS?
And I agree with the fact that it is flawed, somewhere I read that the group that was to be the "night shift" was studied based on sleeping over 2 night periods. Well that is just as backwards as if they had expected the "day shift" group to sleep during 2 days! Of course their results would be worse!

 

Thats not research.
Its a poorly defined experiment.

 

This may have been posted before, but it answers your question.

"How The Heck Did FMCSA Wind Up Redoing HOS Again?"
http://www.ooida.com/Issues&Actions/Regulatory/issues/HOS/02-07-11 hos timeline.pdf

 

when you guys realize it's not about safety but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ you will see and understand whats happening.
fellow drivers, you only need 7 to 8 hours of sleep, why not set it at that and then let the driver take his breaks when he needs a break? answer: it's all about $$$$$ and gooberment control.