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A special panel set up by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to investigate accidents involving buses and trucks held its first meeting this week.
The panel has been tasked with doing on-the-spot investigations to determine the cause of accidents and collate relevant background information.
In recent years, there has been an increase in accidents involving buses and trucks on long hauls.
In such cases, the panel will investigate whether companies are overworking drivers, whether there are relief drivers on overnight buses, the work schedule of drivers, their holiday schedule, if trucks are overloaded and so on.
The panel will meet once every three months and submit its findings and recommendations to the ministry and National Police Agency.
© Japan Today
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StormR
Pretty easy to identify the causes,
Truck Drivers have little care and think they own the roads.
Many are working long hours and lack sleep.
Lack of sleep is often because they are doing meth to keep awake and drive long haul.
They think roads like the Tomei are a game and like to race each other and try to break their own personal times between places and try to intimidate other motorists.
They have little or no respect or care for other road users or road rules.
They are mostly a bunch of dicks who should be getting proper driver training, taught the road rules, safety and drug and alcohol tested at random.
The police should be actively enforcing compliance of truckers and should have dedicated units on major highways policing these truckers.The safety of other road users should be tantamount and we should not have to play Russian roulette with these out of control monsters every time we use the highway.
With such an amazing rail system I do not understand why more freight isn't shifted around the main centers using rail, this would reduce the number of out of control truck drivers who rumble down the highways with little regard for the safety of themselves or other road users.
Disillusioned
So once again, we see them treating the symptoms and not the cause. They need to introduce a log book system and weigh-in stations on all major roads and highways. In Australia and the US they mobile truck weigh-ins that are patrolling the highways and streets nonstop. I've driven the Tome highway between Tokyo and Osaka and it is a joke! The trucks (mostly 5 tonne delivery trucks) appear in gangs doing 120+ kph and weave through traffic like a formula one car. They really need to be stopped. It is no wonder serious accidents involving trucks and buses are increasing cos the drivers are cowboys and the companies are slave drivers!
wildwest
It's a joke! They know the problem but won't do anything about it. Stop Taxi (and truck) drives on duty for 20 hours for a start.
SenseNotSoCommon
The EU legislates the following for trucks and coaches:
Over a four-month period drivers mustn't work more than 48 hours a week on average.
Minimum rest times are fixed at 11 hours per day, including nine hours consecutively.
Drivers must also take a total of 45 minutes rest for every four and a half hours of driving.
These are minimum regulations, and individual states are free to mandate tougher rules. All trucks and coaches in the EU are equipped with a tachograph, which records driving hours onto a paper disk. Tachos are regularly checked by traffic police and other relevant authorities, with heavy punishments for non-compliance.