Big rigs can drive for longer hauls

WASHINGTON - Truck drivers will be able to stay on the road for up to 11 straight hours but will have to take at least 10 hours off before they can again get behind the wheels of their rigs, according to new federal regulations taking effect Sunday.

The government said Tuesday that the new rules will make the roads safer because truckers will have to rest for two more hours between driving shifts. The Transportation Department estimates the change will reduce deaths associated with truck driver fatigue from 440 to 335 a year.

"The new safety rule gives us the means to save hundreds of lives, protect billions in commerce and safeguard our roads and highways for years to come," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said in a prepared statement.

Some safety groups and the truckers' union disagreed, saying that allowing a trucker an extra, 11th, hour behind the wheel - compared with the 10 hours maximum now permitted - will result in more, not fewer, dangerously fatigued truckers on the road.

"When these drivers are already behind the wheel of a heavy piece of machinery for 10 hours, it's only going to increase their fatigue if you increase the hours - even if they have an extra hour of rest," said Rob Black, spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Public Citizen, a consumer group, sued earlier this year to overturn the new regulations before they were put in effect. The case is pending in federal court.

"It does nothing positive, it does a lot of negative, and it's a big waste of four years of effort," said Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen's president.

Claybrook said the government succumbed to lobbying by the trucking industry. The American Trucking Associations supports the new rules.

"We think these rules are good," said John Willard, a spokesman for the trucking associations. "The new rules will help us improve our highway safety record, and help our bottom line because insurance rates will go down."

A highway safety group funded by auto insurers said the new rules won't have much effect on highway safety. Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said the rules could make the situation worse.

"Research shows crashes increase markedly after eight to 10 hours of driving, yet these rules raise the limit for driving at a stretch, from 10 to 11 hours," Rader said.

Critics said the biggest problem with the regulations is that they don't require electronic on-board recorders - black boxes for trucks - that would automatically monitor the truck's movement.

"Truckers refer to their log books as comic books," Rader said. "Enforcement was a joke before and that hasn't changed under these new rules."

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Annette Sandberg conceded that the hours-of-service regulations are difficult to enforce because truckers falsify their logbooks.

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