WASHINGTON – Trucking companies should work harder to enforce rest for their drivers, and the government should move toward mandating the use of alarm systems to alert exhausted truckers, a federal board recently recommended, according to www.examiner.com.

Truck drivers are ultimately responsible for taking regular rest, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said. However, trucking firms and the government should also make the nation’s roads safer by studying fledgling technology that would keep professional drivers alert.

The board hearing, held in Washington, D.C., and streamed live on the Internet by the NTSB, was prompted by an early morning crash in Western Wisconsin three years ago, where a bus slammed into an overturned semitrailer truck, leaving five people dead and 28 injured.

NTSB investigators concluded that the truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and began to drift off the shoulder. When he swerved back onto the road the rig overturned. The bus then plowed into the truck.

Some early stage technology may eventually prevent such fatigue-induced crashes, NTSB investigator Jana Price told the board. For example, a dashboard-mounted camera that tracks a driver’s eye and eyelid movements could alert a driver who appears to be falling asleep.

The Wisconsin crash occurred Oct. 16, 2005, on Interstate 94 near Osseo. The NTSB found that the brakes on the bus had not been properly maintained, but said the poor visibility in the 2 a.m. darkness meant the bus driver couldn’t have avoided the rig even if the brakes were in ideal condition.