Study: first hour of driving most critical for CMV drivers
The Trucker File Photo
By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff
3/13/2008
WASHINGTON — A new study found that of all hours, the first driving hour of the day had the highest raw percentage of crashes.
The study which was finished in January is in peer review at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, according to Richard Hanowski, Ph.D., director, Center for Truck & Bus Safety, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) who conducted the study. The study has not been published, but information from it was released Feb. 26 in an FMCSA research Webinar.
In addition to findings that the first hour of driving had the most wrecks for CMV drivers, study results did not support the hypothesis that there is an increased risk from CMV drivers driving in the 11th hour as compared to the 10th hour, or any driving hour.
VTTI, however, cautioned that although the data is “perhaps the best of its kind, it represents a small fraction of CMV drivers, vehicles, miles driven, and there were very few crashes.”
For more on this study see the April 1 issue of The Trucker.