As cities grow and affordable housing is set further and further away, workers must spend more time commuting. This means less time for sleep and personal activities, fatigue while on the job, and even long-term health effects like obesity, high blood pressure, and poor cardiovascular health. Some people who are most affected by long commuting times are commercial truck drivers.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be setting up a survey to determine how prevalent this issue is among truck drivers. It will also inquire on how far the drivers travel, if they have to cross time zones, and how their safety is impacted by the fatigue. Where there are existing commuting policies, the FMCSA will study their effectiveness.
This comes as the result of a 2015 highway bill called the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act. A section of that bill requires the FMCSA to study the effects of commuting times that exceed 150 minutes. The findings of the study will then be submitted to Congress. On Jan. 26, 2018, the FMCSA concluded the stage where it sought comments for the proposed survey.
Truck driver fatigue is a factor in many truck accidents, some of them fatal. Victims of such accidents, or their surviving family, as the case may be, should consult with a truck accident injury lawyer about filing a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. The settlement could potentially be a large one, and trucking companies and their insurers will do all they can to deny payment. A lawyer, though, can bring in investigators, accident reconstruction experts, and other parties to build up the case and then negotiate on the client’s behalf.