Deception * USA - Court affirms finding Minnesota State Patrol used it

Saint Paul,MINN,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Sandi Soendker -2 May 2011: -- The Minnesota Attorney General’s office recently asked the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to revisit its finding, from the evidence it heard at trial in September 2010, that the Minnesota State Patrol’s inspectors used deception when inspecting truck drivers for fatigue. The focus of this new request was an email by Lt. Steven Lubbert to the entire Commercial Vehicle Enforcement section of the MSP concerning the use of the patrol’s fatigued driver checklist... According to OOIDA’s lawyer, Paul D. Cullen, Jr., of The Cullen Law Firm, PLLC, this ruling is important because the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law will be the basis for Judge Frank’s next major ruling expected in the case. OOIDA has asked the court to issue an order instructing the MSP what it must do and not do in the future to respect the constitutional and legal rights of drivers...

DRIVERS' FATIGUE * Australia - NTI research: dramatic fall in fatigue crashes

National Transport Insurance (NTI) shows:  The proportion of serious truck crashes caused by fatigue has fallen substantially

(Picture by Redward Frank/The Daily Telegraph: Crash scene...a car collided with a B-double semi-trailer on the mid north coast overnight)
Canberra,Australia -ATA's Friday Facts -15 April 2011:  ...   Its 2011 Major Accident Investigation Report analysed 323 truck accidents that occurred in 2009, building on previous NTI research covering accidents in 2003, 2005 and 2007...  The report found that fatigue was a major factor in 10.1 per cent of the accidents, compared to 20.3 per cent in 2007. 81 per cent of the fatigue related crashes occurred on outbound journeys within 500 kilometres of the point of departure...   The report found inappropriate speed for the conditions was the predominant cause of the crashes, accounting for 31.8 per cent of the accidents studied...   Seven out of 10 of the accidents were single vehicle accidents. When another vehicle was involved, the truck driver was found negligent in 44 per cent of those crashes. In fatal accidents involving more than one vehicle, the third party driver was at fault in 82 per cent of the accidents...  The report found B-doubles carried 46 per cent of freight but only accounted for 28.8 per cent of the accidents... (See Video from YouTube, by cfavic)