Tag Archives: drowsy driving

Give the Gift of Life: Do your part to make our roads safer!

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , ,

Let’s make sure that we are not always pointing our finger at someone else to take the blame for highway safety. Make sure that you are not driving impaired in any way, shape, or form: DISTRACTED, DRUNK, DRUGGED, or DROWSY (DWF)!

And, if you can do something to make trucks safer–whether you are a legislator, a government regulator, a truck driver, a trucking industry executive, or a voting/driving member of this country–do it!

Give the gift of LIFE–help prevent a crash fatality!

Mary loved to give a gift–whether it was her infectious smile, a bouquet of flowers, or an invitation to have some fun!

Remember AnnaLeah and Mary–and all those countless others who have lost their lives on the roads–and give the gift of life.

 

Who are no more with photo

Distracted & Drowsy Driving; A Matter of Personal AND Social Responsibility–NOT Either/Or

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , , , , ,

I have been thinking about this for some time now. Having lost my two youngest daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), two years ago due to a truck crash, I have thought a lot about things like drowsy driving and distracted driving. What it has gotten me to also do is think a lot about the answer to these problems.

https://annaleahmary.com/driver-fatigue/

https://annaleahmary.com/2014/07/our-crash-was-not-an-accident/

Actually, I don’t think that there is just one answer to decreasing these behaviors that are all-too-often resulting in people dying. I think that the answer lies in a combination of personal and social responsibility.

Yes, people need to wake up and realize that they could be the next one responsible for someone dying. Not that they would have ever meant to. Not intentionally. But a behavior that could have been avoided is reckless when it leads to a death that could have been prevented.

Unfortunately, the law is not so easily changed to reflect that and so, all-too-often, there is not a legal deterrent with teeth to change behavior–in time to make a difference for someone’s loved one. Distracted driving and drowsy driving are not usually defined as RECKLESS and therefore do not receive a stiff penalty. (After all, it could be me or someone I know that could end up in jail.) I wrote about this in great detail here:  https://annaleahmary.com/2014/08/law-enforcement-with-justice-for-all-balancing-truth-love/

Yet, I have also given much thought to the fact that it is foolish to put all of our eggs in one basket and depend on the individual to always do the right thing. This is why it is also important to address this as a social issue with multiple solutions, including changing laws, law enforcement, safety technology, and holding the manufacturers of products accountable for doing their part to make us all safer on the road.

I have not actually delved into the possibilities very thoroughly. But I want to throw out this question: Should the producers of electronic communication devices bear some responsibility for innovatively contributing to making them less easily abused when it comes to matters of life and death?

Safety is not a priority

Safety Is Not A Priority

Don’t Be Caught Unaware: Find out what YOU can do to become a safer driver

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. I don’t know if we will ever know what kind of Distracted Driving was responsible for AnnaLeah’s and Mary’s deaths (no one investigated this thoroughly that we are aware of). But we do know that the truck driver–for whatever reason–did not notice the slowed traffic ahead in time and, and as a result, hit our car twice.

Was his driving impaired due to being distracted, drugged, drinking, or drowsy (Driving While Fatigued–DWF)? Whatever the reason, AnnaLeah’s and Mary’s lives were abruptly ended.

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Hardly a day goes by without coming across some reminder of the special girls they were and the empty place that no one else can fill in our lives. Just this morning, I found a little piece of paper that had fallen off a clothes hanger. In the last couple years of her life, Mary had made tags for her hangers and meticulously organized her closet.  A simple reminder of our Mary, a poignant reminder of our loss.

Hanger tag Mary's jeansMary shorts 033

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Here are some further thoughts & tools to help you avoid distracted driving:

We are all susceptible to making driving mistakes. I encourage you to take steps to make sure that your driving is as safe as possible. No regrets.

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Truck Crash Moment: A truck driver’s actions forever divided time into Before & After

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

AnnaLeah and Mary Mary & AnnaLeah Before

IMG_4464Truck Crash Moment

headstoneAnnaleah  & Mary After

Tug of War Over Trucker Hours of Service; It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over

Truck Safety, , , , ,

The Truck Safety game 001

YOU CAN HELP in the tug of war in the battle over trucker hours of service regulations.

The Omnibus bill passed the House on Thursday evening by a 219-206 vote. Last night, several truck safety leaders took to the floor of the Senate and spoke about truck driver fatigue, the hours of service (HOS) rule and the dangers of the Collins Rider. Senators Booker and Blumenthal were passionate in their defense of the HOS rule and our families’ right to safety. The night ended with the Senate passing a two-day extension to vote on the bill.

Please join Senators Booker and Blumenthal and let your Senators know that these anti-safety riders are bad for roadway safety and bad for our families! TAKE action now:

Please contact your Senators ASAP and tell them, “We’re tired of Congress putting trucking industry profits ahead of public safety. VOTE NO on the Omnibus Spending Bill!”

You can find the contact information for your Senators here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

OR call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator’s office.

DEMAND SAFETY FOR OUR FAMILIES – SAY NO TO TIRED TRUCKING!

Before & After Photos

Update on Electronic Logging Devices

Truck Safety, , , ,
Washington DC 151
I emailed one of my contacts at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last week to check on the progress of the Electronic Logging Device Rule (one of the 3 requests in the AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up For Truck Safety Petition). This was his reply:
Hello, Marianne,
We are analyzing more than 2,000 comments that were submitted to the ELD Notice of Proposed Rulemaking docket. After completing this review, we will determine if changes to the proposed rule are in order before a final rule is issued.
 
The ELD rule is our top priority, and our goal is to issue a final rule in 2015.
 
Thank you for checking in with us on the status of this rulemaking. . . .
 Bill Bronrott
(See Public Comments on the ELDs here:  http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketBrowser;rpp=100;so=DESC;sb=docId;po=0;dct=PS;D=FMCSA-2010-0167 . Our AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up for Truck Safety Petition is included at this site–one of the 2000+ comments.)

 

This was my reply:

Bill,

Thank you for getting back to me. I appreciate your taking the time to update me.

After what we have gone through in our case, with no log books ever being obtained from the truck driver — thus no way of determining his hours of service or possible fatigue, I am more convinced than ever that Electronic Logging Devices are essential.

Furthermore, I hope that, in the crafting of the final rule for ELDs, there are appropriate provisions included for consistent monitoring by means of this technology–for both preventive and investigative purposes. I urge you to put particular emphasis on including means for monitoring independent owner operators who might not have an employer looking over their shoulder. And don’t forget to do all in your power to train those in the enforcement and judicial systems to make full use of this technology.

Finally, I hope that this will be a beneficial technology which will be well-received and pave the way for other useful assistive devices, such as driver fatigue monitoring devices. For example, see this article,  http://www.academia.edu/4840350/A_Synopsis_Report_On_EYETRACKING_BASED_DRIVER_FATIGUE_MONITORING_AND_WARNING_SYSTEM_Submitted_By :

“The main idea behind this project is to develop a nonintrusive system which can detect fatigue of the driver and issue a timely warning.Since a large number of road accidents occur due to the driver drowsiness, this system will be helpful in preventing many accidents, and consequently save money and reduce personal suffering. This system will monitor the drivers eyes using a camera and by developing an algorithm we can detect symptoms of driver fatigue early enough to avoid an accident. So this project will be helpful in detecting driver fatigue in advance and will gave warning output in form of sound and seat belt vibration whose frequency will vary between 50 to 60 Hz. Moreover the warning will be deactivated manually rather than automatically. For this purpose a de-activation switch will be used to deactivate warning.

Moreover if driver feels drowsy there is possibility of sudden acceleration or deceleration. We can judge this by Plotting a graph in time domain.If all the three input variables show a possibility of fatigue at one moment then a Warning signal is given in form of text or red color circle. This will directly give an indication of drowsiness/fatigue which can be further used as record of driver performance.”

Thank you again for your part in improving safety on the roads. And I look forward to future updates, which I hope will give evidence of the priority you have indicated is being given to this needed improvement in truck safety.

Marianne

Dangers of Drowsy Driving

Truck Safety, , ,
gertie 264

Drowsy driving can be a problem for all of us. It is not just that you could fall asleep while driving but that your ability to react in emergency situations is impaired. It can happen to you when you least expect it. Not only that but you can be the victim of someone else’s drowsy driving any time you get into your car.

Drowsy truck drivers are especially hazardous because their job puts them on the road (in a monstrous piece of metal) for most of their working hours.

If I could do it, I would re-create the efforts of MADD–only instead of DWI, the target would be DWF (Driving While Fatigued).

A study by researchers in Australia showed that being awake for 18 hours produced an impairment equal to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .05, and .10 after 24 hours; .08 is considered legally drunk. 

Unfortunately, many people do not look upon drowsy driving as a serious problem. Perhaps if you knew that you were intoxicated, you might hand your keys to someone else to help you get home safely.  Why would you choose to be safe in one case and not the other?

Many crashes are caused by drowsy drivers, because there is often little or no attempt to stop a collision.  Crash investigators often notice the absence of skid marks or other signs of braking; this may be evidence of microsleep .

And read about Sleep Inertia here.