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Alarms Pushed As Road Fatigue Cure

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The Associated Press

Published: September 18, 2008

MILWAUKEE - Trucking companies should work harder to enforce that their drivers get rest, and the government should move toward mandating the use of alarm systems to alert exhausted truckers, a federal board recommended.

While drivers are ultimately responsible for getting enough rest, trucking companies and the government should also make the nation's roads safer by studying fledgling technology that would keep drivers alert, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The board hearing, held in Washington, D.C., and streamed live on the Internet, was held in response to an early-morning crash in western Wisconsin three years ago in which a bus carrying a high school band slammed into an overturned semitrailer, killing five people.
NTSB investigators concluded that the truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and began to drift off the interstate's shoulder. When he swerved back onto the road, the rig overturned. The bus then plowed into the truck.

Some technology still in the early stages may eventually prevent such fatigue-induced crashes, NTSB investigator Jana Price told the board.

For example, a dashboard-mounted camera that tracks a driver's eye and eyelid movements could alert a driver who appears to be falling asleep.

"That can be useful since drivers are often unaware of their own fatigue," she said.

Tiredness is a factor in about one in eight large-truck crashes, Price said.

The Wisconsin crash occurred around 2 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2005, on Interstate 94 near Osseo. The NTSB found that the brakes on the bus had not been properly maintained, but said that poor visibility meant the bus driver couldn't have avoided the rig even if the brakes were in ideal condition.

Bus driver Paul Rasmus was among the dead.

The driver of the semi, Michael Kozlowski, of Schererville, Ind., was not seriously hurt. Last year, a jury acquitted him of negligent homicide, causing great bodily harm by reckless driving and causing injury in the crash.

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