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TV and Film Industry Wins
Waiver on Truck-Safety Rules
By STEPHEN POWER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- The television and film industry has a new prize to boast of, courtesy of Congress.
A little-noticed provision in the $820 billion government spending bill that cleared Congress last week prohibits federal highway-safety regulators from enforcing new truck-safety regulations on commercial drivers who work in the film and television industry. The same section also prohibits enforcement of the new rules on utility service vehicles.
The so-called hours-of-service regulations, put into effect Jan. 4, are intended to reduce highway accidents involving tired truckers by extending the length of time truck drivers must rest between shifts to 10 hours, from eight. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimates the rules will save 75 lives a year, prevent 1,326 fatigue-related injuries, and prevent 6,900 property damage-only crashes, resulting in annual savings of some $628 million.
But under a 100-word provision buried deep inside the bill, the agency is effectively barred from enforcing the regulations on "drivers engaged in the transportation of property or passengers to or from a motion picture or television production site located within a 100-air mile radius of the work reporting location of such drivers."
Critics said the provision was crafted in secrecy and would encourage other industries to seek similar exemptions.
"It doesn't make sense," said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition of consumer, health and safety groups and insurance companies that is challenging the regulations in federal court. The coalition said the new rules actually undermine safety because they also allow an increase in the maximum length of a trucker's shift, to 11 hours from 10. "If they need relief, let's have a congressional hearing and get the facts out," said Ms. Gillan, referring to the movie industry.
A spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) said the senator sponsored the provision and that the TV and film industry's drivers typically drive less than 100 miles a day, often resting at the production sites. "We do not feel this would compromise safety," the spokesman said.
Vans Stevenson, a senior vice president with the Motion Picture Association of America, said enforcement of the new rules would drastically increase the industry's production costs and could undermine safety by requiring more drivers to haul around equipment. "Everyone has an equal opportunity to make their case before Congress when rules are being changed," Mr. Stevenson said.
The same section of the spending bill also barred the Motor Carrier Safety Administration from enforcing the rules for drivers of utility service vehicles. Some industry officials have said the rules would delay routine maintenance and slow utilities' responses to emergencies. But Ms. Gillan said a 1995 federal law already exempts utilities from motor-carrier safety regulations in such situations. The utility provision was sponsored by Rep. Ernest Istook (R., Okla.).
An attorney for several utility groups said the change was needed to cover events that don't rise to the level of a declared emergency, such as a thunderstorm that knocks out power to a large number of homes. A spokeswoman for Mr. Istook said he supported the utility provision because the new rules would "jeopardize their ability to respond in certain situations, such as weather emergencies," which she added "can be life-and-death situations."
Write to Stephen Power at stephen.power@wsj.com
Updated January 29, 2004
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