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December 14, 2005
FMCSA DRIVER RULE RAPPED BY COURT
In a sharply-worded decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. has told DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Agency that its rule establishing training requirements for truck and bus drivers is “so at odds” with safety information assembled by the government that it should be thrown out and redone. In an opinion chastising the agency for disregarding data and offering “patently illogical” reasoning, the court said the agency “has adopted a rule with little apparent connection to the inadequacies it purports to address.”
The court was acting in a suit brought against the agency by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. The rule was supposed to set minimum training requirements for commercial motor vehicle operators, including drivers of trucks and buses. Instead of requiring that drivers have on-the-road training in such things as backing, driving in severe weather, controlling skids and passing other vehicles, though, the rule merely requires training in driver wellness, driver qualifications, hours of service and whistleblower protection.
Posted by MVHAP at December 14, 2005 07:02 PM