A recent Cleveland television report revealed that even when they have been involved in serious accidents or received speeding tickets, truck drivers can stay on the road. Even drivers whose commercial driver's licenses (CDL) were revoked can easily get behind the wheel again. The television investigation turned up a truck driver with 15 speeding tickets since 1990 and a trucker sentenced to prison for drug and weapons charges - both of them back on the road legally before they once again caused truck accidents.

One of the reasons for this apparent loophole is that one state may not know about the traffic violations and crimes of a trucker in another state. For example, the trucker with the drug and weapons convictions got his CDL in Ohio, not Illinois, where the crimes were committed and the sentence served.

Another reason is that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issues guidelines, not laws, and states do not apply the guidelines consistently across the United States. Since most semi-trucks travel the length of the country, it is impossible to know the status of the driver whose truck you encounter on the road; the driver may come from a state that has less strict enforcement of the FMCSA guidelines.

Most people think that truck drivers are held to higher standards than drivers of smaller vehicles. This is sometimes true, but it depends not only on the state but on the trucking company. The Ohio driver with the 15 speeding tickets had also been involved in a crash on I-90, and his CDL had been revoked twice. Yet a trucking company still hired him.

Source: Newsnet5, "Exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation reveals truckers can keep driving despite tickets, wrecks", by Ron Regan, Nov. 11, 2011.