WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, the former Administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) expresses her strong support for Senator Susan Collins’ effort to improve highway safety.
At issue is an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2015 Senate Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill, adopted by a bipartisan 21-9 vote in the Senate, that would provide temporary relief from two revisions to the Hours of Service (HOS) regulations governing truckers that took effect last July that are having unintended consequences. During this time, the Department of Transportation is required to conduct a comprehensive scientific study assessing the operational, safety, health and fatigue impacts of the current restart provisions. These new provisions were implemented without sufficient analysis on the impacts of potentially shifting additional truck traffic onto our nation’s roadways during peak daytime congested hours. All of the other regulations governing truck drivers, including the limits on the total number of hours a driver can work during a day, the amount of time he or she must be off duty, and the mandatory 30-minute rest break during a shift, would remain unchanged and in effect.
In her letter to Senate Appropriators, Annette Sandberg indicates that the revision in the “restart” rule imposed by FMCSA last year was “done without the benefit of proper scientific research, and is hurting highway safety…” She calls Senator Collins’ proposal “common sense reform.”
Sandberg, who served as Administrator of the FMCSA from 2003-2006 and served Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), has more than 20 years of professional safety and law enforcement experience at Federal and State levels of government. Her leadership helped to produce a substantial reduction in large truck fatality rates.
A
copy of Ms. Sandberg's letter can be found here.