As a truck accident attorney, I’ve been involved in far too many injury lawsuits caused by fatigued truck drivers. But there’s a new website that might help truck drivers stay safe and alert on the roads.
This website was created by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI). The goal is to help with commercial truck driver fatigue management – before it causes injuries or deaths.
Here’s the website: The North American Fatigue Management Program (NAFMP).
The website is designed to provide online fatigue management training for drivers, their families, truck company managers, dispatchers and shippers/receivers, according to the ATRI.
The website provides training for free, along with information on the following:
- How to develop a corporate culture that facilitates reduced truck driver fatigue;
- Sleep disorder screening and treatment;
- Truck driver and trip scheduling; and
- Fatigue management technologies.
New hours of service (HOS) regulations for 2013 reduce the work week to 70 hours from the former 82 hours.
Whenever I write or speak at legal seminars about hours of service issues, I always point out that this is not even taking into account all of the motor carriers and truck company safety directors who deliberately push their drivers to drive past safe hours — putting truckers’ lives in jeopardy, as well as breaking the law and endangering everyone else’s safety on the roads — all for a slightly bigger bottom line.
Developing partners for the North American Fatigue Management Program include the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Transport Canada, the Alberta Motor Transport Association, Alberta Occupational Health and Safety, Alberta Transportation, the Alberta Workers Compensation Board, Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail du Quebec and the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec, according to a July 24, 2013 article on the Canadian Safety Reporter: Website provides fatigue management for North American commercial drivers.
NAFMP says that its “members have committed significant time and resources to the development of a comprehensive fatigue management program that would enhance a carrier’s ability to effectively deal with the challenges of fatigue in a highly competitive, widely dispersed, and rapidly changing industry.”
Hat tip to an important safety resource to protect truck drivers and everyone who shares the road with them.
