Washington — The Truck Security Coalition is asking on the Division of Transportation to make automatic emergency braking and speed-limiting devices a requirement on industrial vans and buses.
In a letter sent to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, coalition President Tami Friedrich Trakh and representatives from 9 different trade, labor and tutorial organizations contend “it’s previous time to problem important and overdue truck security requirements,” together with adjustments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rule for drivers.
The group factors to the Feb. 3 practice derailment and hearth in East Palestine, OH, which concerned the transportation of hazardous supplies. “This related state of affairs impacts the protection of lots of of hundreds of hazardous supplies shipments that transfer by truck each day by communities throughout the USA,” the letter states. “Authorities inaction and relentless opposition by particular trucking pursuits places the general public at pointless and unreasonable danger of a lethal and harmful crash.”
As mandated underneath the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, FMCSA and the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration are continuing with proposed rulemaking concerning automatic emergency braking. DOT’s Fall 2022 regulatory agenda lists March as a goal date for publication of a proposed rule “to require and/or standardize gear efficiency” for AEB techniques on heavy vans.
Relating to velocity limiters, the coalition asks for a federal mandate on using speed-limiting units to cap industrial motorcar speeds at 60 mph as a result of “velocity kills.” In Could, FMCSA printed an advance notice of supplemental proposed rulemaking that expands on a 2016 joint proposal from NHTSA and FMCSA that might require speed-limiting units on vans, buses and multipurpose passenger autos weighing greater than 26,000 kilos. FMCSA is the lone company listed on the proposal, which doesn’t specify a prime velocity. The 2016 proposal instructed capping speeds at 60, 65 or 68 mph.
In response to the regulatory agenda, FMCSA anticipates publishing a second discover of proposed rulemaking in June.
The letter additionally requires the restoration of a 2011 ultimate rule that preceded a controversial 2020 rule change that FMCSA claimed would add flexibility to hours-of-service laws for industrial truck drivers. “We urge you to revive the 2011 rule instantly and require a 30-minute relaxation break after eight hours of driving that doesn’t enable non-driving work,” the letter states. “Moreover, DOT ought to reinstitute the rulemaking requiring screening and remedy of safety-sensitive personnel for obstructive sleep apnea, one thing DOT already requires of air pilots.”
