Last year, DOT was given the authority to study the question of raising the minimum liability insurance for truckers. (In our case, some of the insurance money from our settlement is still tied up because so many stakeholders wanted a portion of the pot.)
Now, members of the U.S. Senate and House have been asked to introduce and vote on amendments to legislation which would undermine this authority and cause a setback in attempts to more adequately cover the costs of truck crashes.
Minimum insurance requirements have not been increased once in thirty years, and should be increased immediately for medical care cost inflation. Families, like ours, should not have to cover the uninsured damages resulting from truck crashes.
Furthermore, at the same time, members of the House and Senate have also been asked to back legislative amendments which would suspend some of the Hours of Service (HOS) rules which were put into place last summer—until further study can be done. The suspension of the HOS provisions would allow truck drivers to increase their work week to 80+ hours and would increase truck driver fatigue.
Both of these actions are being taken (reportedly backed by the trucking industry) at the last minute when legislators are getting ready to vote on the budget, and both will have a negative impact on truck safety. 2 steps forward, 3 steps back
When I asked if this flurry of opposition was par for the course, I was told that it is particularly well-organized and aggressive.
Expect to hear soon about how you can help halt these actions. We do not want them to undermine 2 out of the 3 improvements which we asked for with our “AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up for Truck Safety Petition!”
For more details about these two legislative amendments, go here:
- Collins’ Amendment (Hours of Service Rules) https://annaleahmary.com/2014/06/fact-sheet-on-the-collins-amendment-its-impact-on-hours-of-service-rules/
- Daines’ Amendment (Minimum Liability Insurance) https://annaleahmary.com/2014/06/fact-sheet-on-the-daines-amendment-to-halt-minimum-liability-insurance-for-truckers/
- Fact vs Fiction on HOS rules: https://annaleahmary.com/2014/06/debunking-the-myths-on-federal-hours-of-service-rules-for-truck-drivers-from-dot/
- Fact Sheet on Drivers’ Hours of Services: https://annaleahmary.com/2014/06/fact-sheet-on-truck-driver-hours-of-service-from-dot-fmcsa/
