Asleep at the wheel

Certainly truck driver Robert F. Spencer acted recklessly, the same as if he'd been drinking and driving:

. . . he'd been driving his loaded rig for hours longer than federal law allows. With the windows rolled down and the air conditioning pumping full-blast, Spencer suddenly stopped talking. Minutes passed. Then, still listening to the phone line in Michigan, his sister Nicole heard a bang.

Prosecutors said Spencer never hit the brakes to slow his truck until it crossed a center median and slammed into the university's van. After the accident, the trucker seemed confused. Witnesses reported that Spencer had fallen asleep at the wheel.

He was, in fact, violating the strict rules governing how long commercial truck operators are allowed to drive without sleep. Ordinary drivers -- most of us driving our personal cars and trucks -- aren't governed by those rules. Is that fair? We are given our licenses under the principle of "implied consent," which means we agree to whatever highway laws are imposed in return for the privilege of driving on those highways. (It's why refusing to take a breathalyzer test is tantamount to admitting guilt, for one thing). But the way to get people to buy into the law and allow themselves to be governed by it is to make the same rules apply to everyone the same. Any law that governs only a select group of people is suspect on its face.

It's not as if truck drivers are the only ones who drive while drowsy:

About one-half of America's adult drivers - 51 percent or approximately 100 million people - are on the roads feeling sleepy while they are driving. Nearly two in 10 drivers - 17 percent or approximately 14 million people - say they have actually fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year.

It's seen as a serious enough problem that at least one state has criminalized driving with too little sleep:

New Jersey Go. Jim McGee Tuesday signed into law a tough new public safety measure that would impose jail time and stiff fines on drivers who cause fatal accidents by falling asleep behind the wheel.

Known as "Maggie's Law" and described as the first legislation of its kind in the United States, the measure allows prosecutors to charge sleep-deprived drivers with vehicular homicide. The charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine.

For what it's worth, it doesn't bother my sense of fairness to have stricter rules for commercial truckers. They constitute a distinct class of drivers, and their vehicles are the ones that will cause the most damage when operated improperly. But if the issue is behaving with reckless abandon, it seems sensible to look at the rules governing the rest of us, too.