Mike Sheldrick writes in the article Fatal Crash Focuses National Attention on Drowsy Driving, “The recent injury to comedian Tracy Morgan and the death of Jimmy Mack, a fellow passenger, after a collision on the NJ Turnpike has focused national attention on the problem of drowsy driving. About time.” The driver of the vehicle causing the crash had gone without sleep for 24 hours before the crash.
Ironically, several days before the crash, led by Susan Collins, R-ME, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to rollback a DOT regulation that requires truck drivers to take at least 34 hours off after working 60 hours in seven consecutive days, or 70 hours in eight days.
Sheldrick says, “To be sure, falling asleep at the wheel is the extreme, but there is a broad spectrum, from ‘brain fog’ to actually falling asleep. It is impaired driving, along with distracted driving.”
Clearly, this is a subject of vital importance to fleet safety. Don’t miss Sheldrick’s incisive article appearing this week in Fleet Safety.
Janice Sutton
Executive Editor
