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Oregon, Wash. Truck Inspections Turn Up Weary Drivers

SALEM, Ore. – A joint effort in Oregon and Washington to make sure truckers are following safety rules turned up a higher than expected number of weary drivers. More than a quarter of drivers inspected in Oregon were found to be on the road when they shouldn't have been.

Truckers are required to take rest breaks every so often in order to ensure they're alert when they're behind the wheel. They have to keep track of those breaks in their logbook.

Oregon and Washington inspectors recently teamed up for a week-long effort to check truckers along I-5 to see whether they were taking enough breaks. In Washington, about 13 percent of drivers failed the inspection. In Oregon, it was 26 percent.

But Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman David House says that figure isn't as scary as it sounds. For one thing, the inspections aren't random.

"We scrutinize both the vehicle and the driver as they pass through a weigh station," House explains.

Inspectors then choose to examine the logbooks of drivers who look inattentive or fatigued. Drivers who need to take a break do so right at the weigh station, pulling over into the trucker's equivalent of a penalty box.

On the Web:

Federal hours of service regulations: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/FmcsrGuideDetails.aspx?menukey=395

An Oregon Department of Transportation motor carrier enforcement officer weighs a truck as a it passes through a weigh station. Photo by ODOT via Flickr
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An Oregon Department of Transportation motor carrier enforcement officer weighs a truck as a it passes through a weigh station. Photo by ODOT via Flickr

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.