Most Pennsylvania residents do not get enough sleep each night and drag themselves to their work desk, bleary eyed, in need of a large cup of coffee. While the tiredness may slow the response time or have a minor impact on their quality of work, for most it is not a matter of life and death. For others however, it may be. Included in the group are those who drive trucks for a living who could be involved in a truck accident.

The National Sleep Foundation recently released a study that indicated 14 percent of drivers behind the wheel of a truck admit to having committed a serious error or an incident they described as a near miss due to being sleepy.

Based on the study's finding, this is not surprising. A whopping 44 percent of truck drivers who took the survey indicated that they usually did not get a good night's sleep the night before they were scheduled to work

In an effort to address the issue, the federal government recently created new rules for drivers of tractor-trailers that reduced their hours of service from 82 hours to 70 hours. In the new rules, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also mandated that each driver have 34-hours off each week for every five days.

Not all are happy with the new rules however. A couple months after the rules were unveiled, the American Trucking Association filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge review the new rules. What, if any, changes the judge makes to the regulations remain to be seen.

Source: The Washington Times, "Not getting enough rest a problem for operators of planes, trains, trucks," The Washington Times, March 6, 2012