https://www.aaafoundation.org/acute-sleep-deprivation-and-crash-risk
Apparently Random Troll thinks no one here can read a newspaper or find the news on their television or computer.
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Thanks for this valuable contribution.
I cited another article about driving safety a week or so ago and others criticized it perspicaciously in ways I hadn’t thought of. It triggered an informative discussion.
This isn’t news to any long haul trucker. There were strict rules about hours of service for trucker some years back that included making sure that truckers could get some sleep at the hours of the day when your body wants it.
Both large shippers and trucking companies spent a lot of money getting these rules rolled back and enforcement of these rules was minimal.
Rules pertaining to truckers don’t mean much without a labor union to stop the company from harassing or firing a driver for obeying them.
They do a lot of that even with a much weakened union today.
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As often is the case, my view tends to be different. Not everyone will encounter a given article in the newspapers or TV. And, it definitely relates to automobiles. And is the sort of thing that newbies on this board should be repeatedly exposed to. So, why the criticism?
My nephew in the state of Vera Cruz is a long-haul truck driver. His travel distances tend to change as he changes companies. For some time, he made several trips a week with a double trailer from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. This involves some hairy mountain roads, even though it’s a divided four lane tollway. It gets really bad when there is heavy fog going up the mountains to the west or Orizaba.
He previously had a job which sent him at times to the border. In a car, with easy days, it took me a long day and a short day with sleep over night. He was expected to make the round trip with no sleep, and he could not cover as much ground in an hour in a heavy truck as I can in a car!
A cousin sells certain stone to places like Home Depot in the US. We have in the past had truck drivers park in our private street for him to load the stone on their trucks. Often the minute the truck stops moving the driver will get out, tell them to wake him when it’s loaded, and go to sleep in the shade of the truck using his jacket for a pillow.
My nephew says he wishes Mexico limited hours behind the wheel like the USA does.
Yes, there are serious accidents and death caused by truck drivers falling asleep. No surprise found here.
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