DRIVING RULE Congress restores truckers' hours

The rule allows truckers to work 11 straight hours instead of 10.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress overturned a court order and quietly reinstated a trucking industry-supported rule that allows drivers to stay behind the wheel longer between rest periods.
A federal court threw out the regulation last summer, saying the Bush administration had failed to consider its impact on truckers' health.
Here's what it says
The rule, which had been in effect for nine months, allows drivers to work up to 11 consecutive hours, one more hour than previously permitted, and to log a maximum of 77 hours over seven days, 17 more than before. It replaced a rule that had been in place since World War II.
In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the rule after it was challenged by the consumer group Public Citizen. The court allowed the rule to stay in place temporarily at the request of the agency that came up with it.
The temporary delay in enforcing the court order remains in effect. The new law means the longer-hours rule will be permanent.
Signed bill
Last week, Congress extended the rule for up to a year by adding it to a separate measure allocating money for highway construction. No announcement of the change was made. The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and the committee's top Democrat, Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, signed off on it.
President Bush signed the bill into law Thursday night.
Around the court
Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said the trucking industry had done an end run around the federal court.
"They didn't want it decided on the merits. They wanted it decided politically," she said.
Claybrook said the 30 percent increase in the amount of time a trucker can now drive makes the roads more dangerous. Fatigue is a predominant cause of large truck crashes, which kill 5,000 people a year, she said.
Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said the new rule reduces the risk of crashes because it requires drivers to take at least 10 hours off between shifts, two more than before. The rule also reduces the maximum work day from 15 hours to 14.
"It's designed to make the roads safer by significantly reducing fatigue-related crashes," Turmail said.
In place
The law keeps the rule in place until Sept. 30, unless the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration comes up with a new one.
Turmail said that agency, which is responsible for trucker safety, is conducting a comprehensive review of the physical effects of drivers' operating their vehicles.
That's what was missing from the agency's original deliberations, the overturned court order had said.