Sometimes life just happens, and sometimes we have to make things happen.
Monthly Archives: April 2016
Technology and distractions – what have we done?!
Opposition to DOT’s attempts to prevent driver fatigue get tiresome. Take a tip from FAA pilot rules.
It sure would be refreshing to find that there was no more opposition to finding the best solution for truck driver fatigue–instead of a continuous battle to get this right. Maybe they should take a tip from the airline industry.
Thanks to federal regulations, pilots never fly more than nine hours at a time, always have backup “relief pilots” and designated beds on long flights, and have limits on the number of weekly hours they can work. This means pilots are among the best-rested people working in commercial transportation — certainly more so than truck drivers, for instance — and rarely deal with the issue of drowsy or sleep-deprived performance.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced a sweeping overhaul of pilot scheduling rules in 2011 in order to ensure that pilots have more time for rest before they enter the cockpit. Among other changes, the minimum mandatory downtime between flights was increased from eight hours to ten hours. One Reason Airplanes Are Far Safer Than Buses and Trucks
When will we get this right?
Need Nat’l Safety Stds @POTUS: MD Car Safety Disclosure Bill Does Little to Protect & Inform Drivers
“MD House Car Safety Disclosure Bill Does Little to Protect and Inform Drivers” Maryland House Car Safety Disclosure Bill
ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — The auto safety disclosure bill the MD House passed in March (HB 525) does very little to protect drivers from dangerous defects, leading safety and consumer advocates say, and flies in the face of new safety and defect disclosure rules issued last week by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Leading consumer groups including Public Citizen, the Center for Auto Safety, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined Consumer Auto in calling on the MD Senate to strengthen the bill to better protect consumers.
“The bill would sharply limit our ability to share with our customers the information about defects the manufacturers share with us in service bulletins, warranty updates, and other communications,” notes Jack Fitzgerald, the president of Fitzgerald Auto Malls who has run a string of car dealerships in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida for 50 years.
“It’s absurd for Maryland law to prevent us from telling our customers about information that Congress and NHTSA say should be public. That’s a terrible disservice to the people who rely on us to sell and service their cars,” Mr. Fitzgerald argues.
My answer: National Traffic Safety Standards and Rules to be adopted by every state. A task of a White House Vision Zero Task Force. What are you waiting for, President Obama?
If we do not pursue this course of action, then who is ethically responsible for all of the deaths which will occur as a result?
