North Carolina motorists who have heard about accidents caused by overworked and sleep-deprived truck drivers might be interested in learning that most commercial trucks will be mandated to have electronic logging devices installed in them. A challenge that was made to the regulation received an adverse ruling in late October 2016 from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration put the rule into place, and it is scheduled to be fully implemented by December 2017. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, on behalf of two of its members, filed a lawsuit against the FMCSA, claiming that the electronic logging devices would violate their constitutional rights to privacy. The 7th Circuit disagreed, however. In 2010, an earlier version of the rule was held to be unconstitutional because it required truck drivers to have cameras installed in their trucks. The current mandate does not have a camera requirement.
The regulation is meant to prevent truck drivers from falsifying their log books and violating hours-of-service rules. The devices log all of the times that the trucks are in service and how many miles are driven each day. The current rule was published by the FMCSA in December 2015.
Because of the high risk of injury and death in commercial truck accidents, there are numerous federa regulations in place. When drivers and trucking companies skirt or violate the rules, they place other people’s lives in danger. People who are involved in accidents with large trucks may be left facing permanent disabilities and a reduction in the quality of their lives. Injured victims may want to get help from a personal injury attorney when attempting to seek compensation for their losses.