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How Long Can A Truck Driver Work?
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How Long Can a Truck Driver Work? Matthew L. Wald, in the article "A Study of Truckers’ Need for Sleep Raises New Alarms" located in the issue of the New York Times dated October 13, 1997, attempts to convey the results of a study conducted by the United States Transportation Department on the sleep deprivation of truck drivers. The author makes valid points on the issue but fails to back up these points with enough supportive evidence. The study was done to show how a new set of regulations could be structured. In order to determine how to draft a new set of laws to govern truck drivers, eighty long-distance truck drivers, working a combined four thousand hours a week, were studied. These drivers drove just under two-hundred fifty thousand miles while their brain waves, vital signs, and eye movements were recorded by researchers (1). Although these are facts, the author should have explained them a little better. Nothing else is said about the truck drivers being monitored by researcher with electronic equipment. Why they were monitored in this means should be explained. Wald shows that the study shed light upon the fact that clear cut answers could not be found to the question of how much sleep a driver needs to be aware of his surroundings. "By measuring behavior – as opposed to the more frequent technique of asking people how they felt – the researchers demonstrated that some of the people who slept the least did not become drowsy behind the wheel, but that some...
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