Bush Administration's Illegal Rule Makes Roads Less Safe, Court Told

Safety Advocates File Brief Saying FMCSA Lawlessly Ignores Court Ruling That Twice Strikes Down Hours-of-Service Rule

The Bush administration broke the law again when it reinstated an hours-of-service rule that is making highways more dangerous, safety advocates told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday.

The Teamsters Union joined Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and Public Citizen in fighting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) interim final rule issued in violation of a court order in December.

The rule, which was twice thrown out by the court, allows truck drivers to drive for 11 hours, one more hour than they were allowed previously. It allows them to work as many as 84 hours a week, which could lead to dangerous fatigue.

“The Bush administration has no shame about breaking the law,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “This hours-of-service rule is as lawless as opening the border to unsafe Mexican trucks, but they just don’t think the law applies to them.

“People are dying on the highway because FMCSA is more concerned about making its corporate bosses happy than it is about making our highways safe,” Hoffa said.

The reply brief filed on Thursday refutes FMCSA’s argument that the rule has improved highway safety.

The percentage of fatal crashes that result from driver fatigue rose 20 percent from 2004 to 2005. “Because 2004 was the first year in which the new, longer hours of driving and work were put into effect, the negative impact is obvious,” the brief states.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently reported that deaths in truck accidents increased in 2004 and 2005.

FMCSA has acknowledged in the past that the risk of a crash doubles from the 8th hour to the 9th hour of driving, and doubles again from the 10th to the 11th hour.

Background

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) first promulgated the hours-of-service rule in 2003, increasing the number of hours truckers can drive. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the rule in 2004, but Congress reinstated it as part of the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004.

FMCSA issued a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in January 2005, proposing a rule that was little changed from the 2003 rule that had been struck down.

On July 24, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the second time threw out the rule that increased driving time to 11 hours from 10 hours and allowed drivers to go back to work after being off duty for only 34 hours.

In the 39-page opinion, Judge Merrick Garland called the rule “arbitrary and capricious.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was a party in the case, joining Public Citizen and the Owner-Operator Independent Driver’s Association

The deadline for the court’s July decision to go into effect was Sept. 14. But legal challenges pushed that deadline back. FMCSA issued the interim final rule on Dec. 11.