Illinois law caps the number of permissible hours a driver can be on the road at 11 hours. Francisco Espinal Quiroz, 51, of Indiana was on the road for more than 12 hours, according to media reports from authorities. He allegedly was speeding through a construction zone when he made a sudden lane change and caused a chain reaction crash involving two cars and a van, killing four people, Illinois State Police reported. Four others in the vehicles were injured in the tragedy. Pam Zekman, investigative reporter at CBS Channel 2 in Chicago reported that the truck driver who has been criminally charged in this incident has been accused by prosecutors of falsifying his log books. Zekman went on to report that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is proposing a new rule that would require all trucks to have electronic logging devices, something that may have prevented the terrible tragedy Monday. Currently, paper logs are used which can be easily falsified. Electronic logs would be hooked to the truck’s engine. Federal officials may announce the new rule by next year, Zekman reported. Bob Clifford was interviewed by Zekman on a story that appeared on the 10 o’clock news in Chicago earlier this year about the dangers of truckers who work too long of hours on the road, in violation of federal and state laws. Clifford spoke about this type of misconduct to Zekman and said that the federal government must work harder to ensure that truckers are following rules that are set out to make the roads safer. The interview came on the heels of information that Clifford Law Offices reported on its website of truck accidents being on the rise. A report from the American Association of Justice (AAJ) last year said that 2011 (the most recent year that complete data are available), 3,757 people died in collisions with trucks and 88,000 more were injured. It marked the second straight year fatalities were up and was an 11.2 percent increase over 2009.
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