I suppose it was inevitable that the tragic accident involving a celebrity and an allegedly tired truck driver would instantly cause a chain reaction of outrage against trucking and a demand for tighter regulations. Still, I was disappointed to see how many individuals and groups leapt from their beds to broadcast blame and misinformation as fast as they could slide into their slippers upon hearing the morning news.
Here, I listened with dismay to radio and television talk show hosts and others demanding that trucking be regulated (are you kidding me?) and watched my email inexplicably fill up with offers of interviews from public interest groups and individuals about the trucking industry running amuck. It will be some time before anyone knows for sure what exactly happened to cause that accident, but it makes no difference. The rush to be seen “demanding action now!” is on, and the number of potential targets is expanding every day. Currently on the list:
- Driver hours of service and the reset provision (again)
- Electronic logs
- Pay by the mile versus pay by the hour
- Required minimum insurance levels for fleets, especially smaller fleets
- Drug and alcohol testing practices
- Driver working conditions (one commentator called truck driving “a sweatshop on wheels”)
- Distracted driving
- Driver screening and training
Some of these things might even benefit from changes in the future, but that is not the point. In this instance, they are simply being used as handy fuel to build bigger bonfires of high-visibility outrage. And I’ve got to confess, it is distressing to see personal tragedy put to such use.
The thing is, it may turn out that the Walmart truck driver who is charged with causing the accident was operating entirely within current hours-of-service regulations. He may have had lots of driving time left on the clock and had plenty of opportunity to rest, as required, before sliding behind the wheel and starting his truck. He may even have had an exemplary safety record up to the accident.
Sadly, he may also have been dog-tired, too tired to drive safely, for any one of a hundred reasons—within his control or not.
Now I can’t speak for anyone else, but it has been a long time since someone peeked in to make sure I was sound asleep when I was supposed to be rather than reading under the blankets with a flashlight, for instance. Instead, grown-ups have the freedom to make choices—for good or ill—about how they spend their own time.
No amount of regulation can compel adults to sleep when they should or, even more importantly, to recognize when they are too tired or otherwise unfit to do the job at hand—whether it is piloting a plane, taking out some poor guy’s appendix or, in this case, driving a truck. Whatever rules are in place, decisions usually come down to individual responsibility sooner or later. They have to; that is how things get done.
So, surely even the shrillest advocates for cracking down on trucking are not imagining a police force poking into bedrooms and sleeper cabs checking to make sure workers are nestled all snug in their beds. Or are they? Alas, you just can’t enforce commonsense any more than you can enforce sleep.
Wendy Leavitt is Fleet Owner’ s director of editorial development. She can be reached at [email protected].
