The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is looking for participants for a new study of the the effectivesness of the red and orange traianlges truckers ar supposed to place behind their tyrcuks when stopped on the roadaside.
The agency said it is asking truckers to comment for a study it is calling, “Warning Devices for Stopped Commercial Motor Vehicles.”
FMCSA said it will use the data to evaluate if those warning devices actually influence behavior of motorists, and if so, how and to what extent. The rule requiring the placement has been on the books for many years.
In a notice published by the FMCSA earlier this week, the agency said, “Given the increasing focus on ADS (automated driving systems), questions surrounding the safety of CMV drivers when deploying warning devices, and the availability of new technology and alternative devices since these questions were last explored in the 1980s, there is a need to thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of warning devices under current regulations.
Current regulations prescribe how and where devices such as warning triangles, flares and fuses must be placed in relation to a disabled truck based on road and traffic attributes at the site of the breakdown.
Thje study comes on the heels of the FMCSA turning down a request for an exemption to those rules by autonomous truck makers. They had requested being able to use lighted beacons mounted on the truck instead of placing the other warning devices
You may submit comments at the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. The docket number FMCSA-2024-0255.
