Troopers on mission to keep tired truckers off the road
STATEWIDE -- For the second year in a row, the Washington state patrol has joined forces with Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia to target fatigued truck drivers. Trooper Andrew Stoeckle says, “We’re giving them our scale crossings and their giving us our scale crossings so we can compare that to our driver’s log books.” Truckers are required to log when they take breaks or sleep for the night. But of those books show that proper breaks haven’t been taken, they get pulled of the road, sometimes for hours at a time. “What we do when we find a log book violation, it’s $179.00 ticket. And it can be placed out of service, but it depends on what they violated. They can be placed out of service from two hours to ten hours or longer,” adds Stoeckle. Truckers can also rack up civil penalties from the government. Our cameras were there as one trucker tries to explain his log book to police. After telling Stoeckle that he updates his book every day, the trooper finds a discrepancy, checks with a weigh station in Oregon and pulls him off the road for ten hours. But that trucker wasn’t the only one. We caught up with Nicolas, a truck driver who was forced to park his rig after police found an issue with his log. I asked him if he had a log and his responded, “yes.” “ But you just didn’t take a break?” I inquired. “Yes, it’s a problem,” said Nicolas. “Are you tired?” I asked. “ Yes, a little” he said. Nicolas also added that he felt it was a good thing that he was pulled off the road for a long break. Not every trucker we met bends the rules, however. Nathaniel Wilson’s rig comes equipped with an electronic log. “I think this is the way to go. It’s accurate, it keeps me honest. I hear the stories of what guys talk about, and I’ve heard stories of how they run 1100 miles on a single day,” said Wilson. And that’s exactly what this emphasis is trying to curb. Stoeckle adds, “It sends a very clear signal to the trucking industry that we’re not going to tolerate fatigued driving.” This year, the emphasis inspected a total number of 951 trucks in a four day period. Of those inspected, 99 rigs were pulled off the road for several hours and 44 were placed out of service for other violations. Last year, 862 trucks were inspected and 110 were placed out of service for several hours.