
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995                   TAG: 9507180110
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

FEDERAL PROGRAM PULLS WEARY TRUCKERS OVER

As many as 73,000 truck and bus drivers have been warned not to mix sleeping and driving as part of the government's annual highway safety inspection program.

Drivers and their rigs were being checked at 290 roadside locations by 3,000 law enforcement officers across the United States and Canada during the round-the-clock, 72-hour program that began Tuesday.

The program, called ``Roadcheck '95,'' was to end at midnight Thursday, said Stan Hamilton, spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration, part of the Department of Transportation.

Trucks and buses were examined for defects and were pulled off the road if any were found, Hamilton said. Drivers and their paperwork also were checked.

The program's focus this year, ``driver fatigue,'' was the No.1 issue at a truck and bus safety summit the department sponsored in March.

Meanwhile, studies have tried to document the role that sleep deprivation and fatigue play in traffic accidents.

Scientists at the Sleep Research Center at Stanford University School of Medicine reported last month that nearly eight of 10 long-haul truck drivers suffer from a sleep disorder that can cause severe fatigue while awake, a rate they said was three times higher than that of the general public.

And the National Transportation Safety Board in January cited fatigue as a factor in at least 30 percent of all heavy-truck accidents. It called for federal regulations that will let drivers get more sleep.

The law says tractor-trailer drivers must be rested when they begin driving and take an eight-hour rest for every 10 hours on the road.

The American Trucking Associations, an industry trade group, said driver fatigue is a serious issue, but progress is being made.

Between 1983 and 1993, the number of truck miles traveled increased 41 percent and truck-related fatalities dropped 37 percent, said association spokesman James Lewis. He did not have information on truck-related deaths attributed specifically to fatigued drivers.

More than 7 million people hold commercial driver's licenses, the department said.

by CNB