Trucker Fatigue Still Major Issue, But Cell Phone Distraction Has Decreased, New VTTI Study Says

September 23, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“Hands-free cell phone use was found to be protective as it likely helps drivers alleviate boredom, while hand-held cell phone use was found to be risky as it takes the driver’s attention away from driving tasks,” a new study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute stated.

This study found that truck drivers were at a much higher risk of crashing when engaging in distracting actions like adjusting their mirrors, reaching for a snack or beverage, or even adjusting their seat belts, although activities like singing or talking while driving were not found to be a distraction.

Additionally, as compared to past studies, the overall usage of cell phones in a trucker cab was found to have significantly decreased in recent “naturalistic” research focusing upon driver fatigue and distraction.

In fact, “the eighth driving hour showed the highest rate of safety-critical event occurrence,” noted VTTI’s study, which aimed to determine the overall effects of drowsiness and distracting actions on big-rig truck driver safety. The study collected data from 182 trucks, 172 truck drivers, 73 motor coach drivers, and 43 motor coaches across seven different fleets, 10 different locations, and 3.8 million driving miles.

A “significant critical event” in the study pertains to four distinct outcomes–unintentional lane deviation, crash-relevant conflict, a near-crash, or an actual collision

In previous studies, researchers found that around 25% to 30% of crashes came as primarily a result of driver distraction. In Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s new study, though, researchers determined that, due to their latest research methods, “it is commonly believed that the actual percentage of distracted-related crashes may be substantially higher.”

These updated ways of collecting more accurate data in more efficient ways has made all the difference in finding real safety issues in the trucking industry today, VTTI added.

“Naturalistic data collection and reduction has become the gold-standard method for investigating driver distraction as it allows researchers to see what a driver is doing just prior to a safety-critical event in real-world settings,” the institution said in its study.

Some of the study’s most vital findings include that truck drivers had a direct correlation between the time their eyes were taken off the road for at least two seconds and the amount of risk they had in being involved in a crash or near-crash; that the time of day and the length of a driver’s rest break may impact his or her overall driving behavior; that the time at which the driver begins a particular trip can have a particular effect on his or her fatigue; and that by diving deeper into the collected data regarding driver drowsiness, it was clear that fatigue levels are highest within systematic baselines between 1:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. for crashes or near-crashes in truck drivers who start their shifts in the early-morning hours and who have long trips starting at those times.

“Researchers, transportation officials, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have all identified driver fatigue as a serious concern for vehicle safety and deemed it to be significantly associated with fatal commercial motor vehicle crashes,” said VTTI in the study. “Drivers have reported that they become fatigued from insufficient time spent recovering during off-duty times, work overload, not working according to their circadian [rhythms], disturbed sleep patterns, and the time sensitivity associated with the nature of their jobs.”

Other determinations made from the results of the study include that the first 10 driving hours for a trucker can be separated into: low significant critical event rate within the first hour, moderate significant critical event rate within the second hour, and high significant critical event rate within the third hour through the 10th hour; that most of the significant critical events took place in daylight when the driver was on a non-junction roadway, on a divided roadway, or in areas without many traffic jams (like an interstate), and while no adverse conditions were present; and that lower amounts of driver texting may show that individual carrier policies, public information campaigns, and local and national legislation changes regarding handheld cell phone use while driving have positively affected safe driver behavior changes throughout the industry.

Although Driving Decreased During Pandemic, Roadway Death Numbers Continue to Rise

September 22, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“We must address the tragic loss of life we saw on the roads in 2020 by taking a transformational and collaborative approach to safety,” said acting administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Steven Cliff.

His statement comes as new data estimates released in early September depict 8,730 car crash deaths occurring in 2021’s first quarter–an increase from the 7,900 deaths reported in the same period of time in 2020.

“These early estimates suggest the driving patterns and behaviors the agency reported 2020–which changed significantly from previous years–continue to prevail and that drivers who remained on the roads engaged in more risky behavior,” explained the NHTSA.

According to the agency, overall traffic deaths rose by 10.5% in 2021’s first three months, although the number of drivers on American roads decreased. The pandemic may have brought about fewer cars on the road, but dangerous behaviors, including speeding, saw a sharp increase during that time–and clearly, they continue to do so.

In fact, overall driving numbers dropped by around 14.9 billion miles–around 2.1%–as shown in preliminary Federal Highway Administration data, but the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled rose to 1.26 in the beginning of 2021. This is an increase of 0.14 from the same period in 2020.

These numbers point to risky behaviors like driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, failing to wear seat belts, or excessive speeding–things that quickly become more common while roads began clearing up with fewer drivers having to make daily commutes.

“Everyone–including those who design, operate, build, and use the road system–shares responsibility for road safety,” Cliff added. “We are working closely with our safety partners to address risky driving behaviors such as speeding, impaired driving, and failing to buckle up.”

NHTSA’s report doesn’t portray truck-involved deaths specifically, but the number of truck fatalities is included in the figures depicting overall traffic statistics. Early estimates in 2020 showed that although traffic fatalities may have risen by 7%, truck-involved crash deaths themselves did drop by 2%.

“The stay-at-home orders started in mid-March 2020, followed by the first full month of stay-at-home measures that were in effect during April,” explained NHTSA in its report. “During May [of 2020], some states began to reopen in some way while almost all states partially reopened by June. After June, each state continued to adapt [its] local and statewide COVID-19 guidelines and assess specific reopening and potential re-closing efforts accordingly.”

Quarterly estimations of fatality rates and vehicle-miles traveled are divided into monthly estimates for 2020 and 2021 in order to determine the overall crash-related effects of the pandemic era, NHTSA explained.

In 2020, overall vehicle-miles traveled dropped by 13.2%, or 430.2 billion miles, although the fatality rate for that year was 1.37 fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled (an increase from 2019’s 1.11 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled).

“While Americans drive less in 2020 due the pandemic, NHTSA’s early estimates show that an estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes–the largest projected number of fatalities since 2007,” said the agency in its report.

Because of the apparent rapid increase in reckless driving and its impacts, this year’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Week focused on speeding, despite overall traffic decreasing throughout the entirety of the pandemic. 2020’s road death rate rose by 24% from the year prior, although miles drive fell by 13%, according to preliminary estimates by the National Safety Council. Additionally, this death rate increase is estimated to be the highest year-over-year spike calculated by the council in nearly a century.

“The surge in motor vehicle crash fatalities must serve as an urgent call to action for Congress and the Biden administration,” said Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president, Cathy Chase. “Requirements and performance standards for proven vehicle safety technology could be saving tens of thousands of lives each year. The needless deaths on our roads must–and can–be stopped.”

Infrastructure Funding in High Demand Following Ida’s Damage

September 21, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“It’s about resilience,” said President Biden in regards to his $3.5 trillion, partisan rebuilding proposal along with another bipartisan infrastructure plan. “Make our roads and highways safer. Make us more resilient to the kinds of devastating impacts from extreme weather we’re seeing in so many parts of the country.”

This discussion comes as both democratic and republican lawmakers are working to find ways to boost infrastructure throughout the country following the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. As the storm ripped through the Gulf Coast and made its way Northeast, it brought with it downed power lines and trees, flooded roads and rivers, and massive damage to various bridges and roadways.

Because extreme weather events such as this are becoming stronger and more common, the nation’s aging infrastructure is no longer sufficient, many Congressional members are claiming. Because the Southeast’s drainage systems were not capable of handling the rain brought about by Ida, storm water was able to make its way into homes and vehicles and kill at least 50 people in the region between Connecticut and Virginia. Another 16 deaths have been counted so far at the hands of Ida throughout Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

“Global warming is upon us,” said Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader. “When you get two record rainfalls in a week [in New York City], it’s not just coincidence. When you get all the changes that we have seen in weather, that’s not a coincidence….It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, unless we do something about it.”

Because of this, many Democrats, along with Schumer, are pushing for Biden’s rebuilding plan–which has a focus on fighting climate change–to be passed, in addition to the nearly trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill recently passed by the Senate. Still, though, the bipartisan bill may not see much movement until Biden’s package moves forward, although Democrats are hopeful both will be passed by the end of September.

“It’s so imperative to pass the two bills,” Schumer added.

The bipartisan legislation isn’t likely to receive strong backing from Democrats until powerful companion legislation is set forth to progress various left-wing priorities, though. Biden has continued to express his support for the bipartisan bill.

The current plan consists of almost $47 billion to revamp and rebuild bridges, roads, and ports to help them withstand natural disaster-related damage; $60 billion to expand renewable energy usage, build more transmission lines, and boost the country’s electric grid; $66 billion in improve and rebuild railroads; and $110 billion to improve and rebuild roads and bridges across the nation.

It “is going to change things on our streets across the country,” Biden said, calling it a “historic investment” in clean water, clean energy, and universal broadband projects, as well as in the nation’s bridges, roads, and railways.

“If we’re going to make our country more resilient to natural disasters, whatever they are, we have to start preparing now,” added Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Cassidy, whose state was hit the hardest by Hurricane Ida, has backed the bipartisan bill as a way to bring much-needed improvements to states often affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters. He is serving as a lead negotiator on the bipartisan legislation.

“I’m sure hoping that Republicans look around my state, see this damage, and say, ‘If there’s money for resiliency, money to harden the grid, money to help sewer and water [systems], then maybe this is something we should be for,’” Cassidy said.

The bipartisan bill would be the first legislation allocating money specifically to “climate resilience,” and would be particularly helpful in boosting investments regarding the “future-proofing” of infrastructure to be able to withstand the effects of extreme weather and climate change, noted Eno Center for Transportation senior fellow, Jeff Davis. The bill would also allocate $17 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers and federal flood control projects–an area that has had long backlogs of needed efforts.

Another $8.7 billion would be dedicated to coastal infrastructure and port resiliency project grants through the Transportation Department, in addition to $3.5 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to better aid communities in efforts to lower their overall risk of flood damage.

“We have to start planning for what the future might hold and do modeling that’s going to help us predict what these future risks are going to be,” said Deanne Criswell, Administrator of FEMA. “These threats aren’t going to go away, and we need to start to reduce those impacts.” Criswell added that severe weather storms are going to quickly become a “new normal” due to climate change.

Road Closures and Power Outages are Just the Start of Trucker Challenges Brought by Hurricane Ida

September 20, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Hurricane Ida hit hard, leaving a lot of damage in its wake across the Southeast and East Coast. For truckers, this meant encountering a variety of new obstacles, such as power outages, debris-riddled and otherwise obstructed roadways, or even problems finding enough fuel for their drivers.

“The fact that we have such a huge, massive lack of power in the state has really impacted a lot of the trucking industry, especially if you operate around the city of New Orleans,” said Renee Amar, Executive Director of the Louisiana Motor Transport Association. Hurricane Ida did the most damage along the Gulf Coast–making its initial landfall in Louisiana.

Fallen trees and power lines are still being cleared from the state’s roads, although some major trucking routes along the coast continue to be washed out. For example, truck-heavy Route 26 in George Country, Mississippi is still waterlogged–its initial flooding caused the death of two people.

“Working with the [Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development], our engineer work teams are actively engaged throughout 11 parishes and have assessed 2,112 miles and cleared 403 miles of roadway from Hurricane Ida,” said the Louisiana National Guard in a Tweet.

Interstate 10 in Louisiana, a large freight corridor, is accessible; however, many New Orleans roadways are still heavily blocked from storm debris.

“Those people that are operating are going to have to figure out alternate routes,” Amar continued. “Sometimes, that’s going to be a local highway. Some of those streets may not be conducive to 18-wheelers driving on [them].”

Now, areas left in the aftermath of Ida’s damage are facing major issues regarding local electrical systems, as the storm brought about mass outages, according to Amar–even so much as knocking down a transmission tower. Luckily, many trucking companies in these areas have been able to stay afloat by using their backup generators–although these aren’t necessarily a long-term solution.

For example, a Gramercy-based trucking company was initially able to keep operations moving with its generators, but quickly realized there was not adequate internet connection to meet demands. Low electricity accessibility has also led to a hindrance of the fuel market, Amar explained.

Lafayette-based Dupré Logistics, which offers site logistics, freight brokerage, energy and chemical transport, and other transportation and logistics services, is able to haul fuel without proper electricity–but electricity is indeed necessary in order to pump fuel. Because of this, the company had at least 60 customers that were offline in the beginning of September.

“We are currently being directed by customers on where to deliver…[to] stations that have been assessed and have power or will be getting power via generator,” said Dupré’s director of operations for energy distribution services, Tony Becnel.

Many shippers in other states have seen further difficulty as the lack of fuel accessibility across Louisiana has caused folks living there to search out-of-state for fuel, noted Hal Miller, President of the Mississippi Trucking Association.

“Particularly in the southwest corner, there’s really a challenge there to keep the stations fueled up,” he said. “There [are] only so many trucks and drivers. They’re doing all they can do. It’s just a huge demand in a very small geographical area.”

To help ease the breadth of challenges like these and work toward recovery, agencies have begun issuing relief orders. Jim Gray, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary, signed an order at the end of August calling for a temporary suspension of specific commercial driver restrictions in regards to drivers working to clear roads of storm-caused obstructions, as well as to those working to restore power in areas with outages.

“I’m sure they appreciate some of that relief,” said Rick Taylor, President of the Kentucky Trucking Association. “If the carrier’s not comfortable with the relief, they obviously don’t have to use it.”

Additionally, provisions related to passenger-carrying vehicles and property-carrying vehicles and their maximum driving times were subject to an emergency relief declaration by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. This emergency declaration was issued for drivers working to bring emergency relief support and direct assistance within the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.

Roadway Lighting May Need Big Changes to Keep Drivers Safe, Researchers Say

September 17, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Roadway lighting and its effects on drivers may need to be the subject of new, extensive research, according to industry experts.

During a late-August webinar hosted by the Transportation Research Board, industry professionals discussed light-emitting diode roadway lighting-related studies depicting the effects of LED road lights on the overall alertness and sleep health of drivers. According to the study, night time melatonin tends to become suppressed in the short-term for drivers exposed to this kind of street lighting.

“What are the impacts of LED roadway lighting on driver sleep health and alertness?” asked the Transportation Research Board in a Tweet ahead of the discussion. “Presenters from VTTI and Jefferson University will discuss how LED [lighting] impacts drivers’ alertness and visibility.”

However, long-term effects, which have not been heavily focused on within these studies, may be prevalent in truck drivers who spend a majority of their days on the road, explained senior research associate at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Division of Vehicle, Driver, and System Safety, Rajaram Bhagavathula.

In healthy drivers, researchers found that salivary melatonin is not largely decreased between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning in regards to the acute effects of LED roadway lights. Additionally, LED lighting, high-pressure sodium fixtures, and zero roadway lighting did not cause any particular boost in driver alertness, they found.

However, how exactly to determine overall alertness in drivers isn’t necessarily black and white.

“As far as alertness, it’s a tricky thing,” said assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson university, John Hanifin. “The drivers all have different physiological and sleeping backgrounds. Knowing their schedule [and] knowing how well they slept in their last sleep episode–these all impact their [baselines].”

During tests on drivers in regards to alertness and sleep physiology, Bhagavathula and his team exposed drivers to different levels of light between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 A.M. on a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute test track. There, all test participants were accompanied by someone else in the vehicle who would be able to take control if needed, as one participant did indeed end up falling asleep during the test.

All of the test vehicles had a variety of sensors implemented onboard, and levels of alertness in participants were determined based on lane position deviation, the amount of time their eyes closed within a three-minute period, and the quickness of their reaction times. During all roadway scenario testing, participants typically had their eyes closed for around 30% of the time.

“We’ve got all these things where we’re starting to impact the environment [and] the roadway,” said VTTI’s head of Infrastructure Based Safety Systems group, Ron Gibbons. “How do we control these light emissions so that we can maximize the benefit and put a number on these things?”

Gibbons previously worked on a study in which roadway lighting was tested regarding its effects on interstate night-to-day vehicle crash ratio decreases. The overarching goal of these studies, he said, is to determine what exactly is the most efficient level of roadway lighting, with the ideal level needing to take into account energy consumption, light pollution impacts, the environment itself, and overall roadway driver safety.

The effects of varying kinds of light on drivers as they operate vehicles can be made extremely efficient, even helpful–as long as the right amount of light is utilized in the best possible locations and time of day, Bhagavathula explained. Additionally, he believes that adaptive lighting may be the best solution, as this kind of roadway lighting can be dimmed or changed when not in use.

In fact, it is “important to consider light as medicine,” he added. “You’d not only get energy benefits [from proper light usage], but also [you would be] reducing environmental impact.”

Moving forward, research must focus upon plasma melatonin in drivers as opposed to salivary melatonin, Bhagavathula noted. However, plasma melatonin collection is likely to be much more difficult as it requires the collection of blood (in this case, in a moving vehicle) instead of the collection of saliva.

Ken Teaches Michigan Trial Lawyers About Focus Groups

September 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, September 14, founding partner Ken Levinson was the featured speaker for a Michigan Association for Justice webinar. In his presentation, "Maximizing Your Trucking Cases Using Focus Groups," Ken taught fellow trial lawyers how to best utilize focus groups to most effectively help their clients in trucking cases.

With Ken’s background helping our firm's clients, as well as having conducting hundreds of focus groups for other trial lawyers across the country, he understands how to utilize a variety of methods at every stage of a case. His presentation addressed how to better understand, identify, and highlight the most compelling issues for a trial; recognize the weakest points of a case at the earliest opportunity; find both positive and negative characteristics of clients and witnesses; and test evidence and develop themes before reaching a jury trial. “It is always an honor to be invited to teach fellow trial attorneys – I am happy to be back giving a presentation for the Michigan Association for Justice,” Ken said.