Thousands of Canadian trucking companies violated U.S. road safety rules in the last two years, failing to keep proper records and driving longer than officials south of the border deem safe, according to U.S. data.
A CBC analysis of the data from the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows some 4,800 Canadian carriers violated key parts of the hours of service and logbook rules in 2009 and 2010. Hundreds of carriers, based in every province but Newfoundland and Labrador, violated rules related to driver fatigue.
Canada and the U.S. have different trucking regulations and enforcement mechanisms, and Canada does not have a similar database on how carriers are faring in this country. Michael Arpin, a Winnipeg-based trucker, said truck drivers often face pressure to violate hours-of-service rules.
Alison Smiley (MIE), a Toronto university professor and an expert on driver fatigue, said “just-in-time delivery” means many truckers are driving all night.
A range of factors play into deadly truck accidents, but Smiley said lack of sleep is a major concern — one that is often overlooked.
“We don’t have a fatigue-alyzer the way we have a breathalyzer,” she said, adding that some police forms don’t even have a space to check off fatigue as a possible contributing factor in an accident.
“We’re sacrificing people on the roads to have our strawberries on time and to not have to pay too much for them,” Smiley said.
Read the full article at CBC.ca and watch the report on CBC’s The National.
