Did Federal Trucking Regulations Influence Tracy Morgan’s Car Crash?

Tracy
Morgan’s Saturday limo crash is putting a spotlight on
federal trucking regulations mandating nap times for long haul
drivers. Police say the Walmart truck driver who plowed into the
back of the funnyman’s limo had
not slept in 24 hours.

While it may seem like forcing fatigued drivers to take breaks
would help keep them from dozing off at the wheel, federal
regulations that went into effect about a year ago cause
time-and-money-maximizing drivers to take breaks when they may not
need them and then drive when they’re tired. 

Drivers all run on different sleep schedules, some of which can
make adherence to the rules trickier and more costly. For
example, if a driver’s required 34-hour rest period ends in the
middle of the afternoon, he or she must wait even longer to restart
their workweek because the rest period did not include two
consecutive nights as the regulations require. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently passed an
amendment that would eliminate this rule. 

Both opponents and proponents of the amendment are using the
attention surrounding the Tracy Morgan crash to advocate for their
positions. 

The executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent
Drivers Association told
NBC News:

If the regulations are so strict that a driver can’t stop and
take a break or take a nap when they need to, then I don’t know how
you can conclude anything other than the regulations have made
highways less safe.

The Federal Motor Carrying Safety Administration (FMCSA) opposes
the amendment and says the regulations increase safety and reduce
crashes caused by fatigued drivers. The Obama administration
opposes the amendment as well. 

But the American Trucking Associations disagrees. The
group’s president
released a statement addressing Morgan’s crash in which he
said the rules mess with a driver’s normal sleep pattern and put
more trucks on the road during riskier daylight hours. The
statement also said that no federal regulation can dictate what a
driver does during their time off, but the group strongly believes
that drivers should rest when they’re not working.

The amendment to ax the rule will now
go to the Senate floor for a vote.