A truck driver has filed a petition with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requesting a new rule to require carbon monoxide detector alarms in sleeper berth-equipped commercial vehicles.
Cincinnati, Ohio-based Todd Daum in his petition described himself as a “CDL-A holder with Hazmat and Tanker endorsements, fleet safety professional, retired Fire Fighter and EMT-B, and author of the Freight Culture Standard research brief documenting the absence of any published measurement of carbon monoxide inside occupied sleeper berths.”
The goal of the petition is to “prevent carbon monoxide poisoning deaths and injuries among drivers resting in sleeper berths,” Daum said in the petition.
Daum cited three carbon monoxide-related deaths of truck drivers, including one who died in Washington state in January 2023 from CO poisoning after a long rest break in his truck. “Investigators determined he was most likely poisoned by a single-burner butane cooking stove found in the truck,” Daum said
“Fatal cases exist in and around sleeper cabs; their frequency is unknown, and at least one was nearly misclassified,” he added.
Overdrive in 2020 also highlighted the case of trucker Scott Carlson, whose company’s trucks are equipped with CO detectors. In Carlson’s case, the detector possibly saved his life when an exhaust leak from his diesel-powered APU broke in the worst spot possible, just below a vent for fresh cab air.
[Related: Driver's death prompts in-cab carbon monoxide warning]
According to Daum’s petition, 49 Code of Federal Regulations 392.66 “bars dispatching or driving a commercial motor vehicle when carbon monoxide has been detected in the interior or an occupant has been affected.” Yet nothing in the federal regulations requires a CO detector. The above regulation “has nothing to trigger on unless someone is already measuring or is already poisoned.”
Additionally, Daum said there has never been a published study that has measured carbon monoxide inside an occupied sleeper berth over a full night. Even still, Daum is not asking FMCSA to prove the exposure first. Instead, he asks for the precaution already recommended by investigators in Washington death case: CO detectors.
Those investigators, Daum said, “explicitly recommended battery-powered CO detector alarms made for vehicles in truck cabs and sleeper berths, always following the manufacturer's installation, maintenance, and safety instructions. Vehicle-rated CO alarms listed to UL 2034 for RV and marine use are commercially available today at about $65 to $80 per unit retail; two units per vehicle (cab and berth) puts a full installation at roughly $130 to $160 per truck before fleet pricing, on a five-year replacement cycle.”
[Related: $50 and a little install work could save your life: Trucker Scott Carlson’s close call]
Daum noted the two units would need to be required instead of just one “because drivers sleep with the berth curtain drawn, making the berth a semi-separate air space, and because the alarm must wake a sleeping driver, potentially over idle noise.”
Under the terms of Daum’s request, every commercial vehicle equipped with a sleeper berth would be required be equipped with a working battery-powered carbon monoxide detector alarm in the sleeper berth and in the cab. The detectors would be required to be vehicle-rated by the manufacturer. Detectors designed solely for residential use would not meet the requirement.
Additionally, drivers would be required to test the detectors at least once every seven days by activating the detector's test function and confirming that the alarm sounds. If the alarm fails the test, the detector must be replaced before the truck is dispatched.
Daum’s petition further would require motor carriers to maintain a record for each vehicle covered by the requirement, including detector make and model, installation date, mounting location, weekly test results, battery replacements, and detector replacements. The driver’s weekly test results would be required to be recorded in the driver's vehicle inspection report or in a separate written or electronic log. Records would be required to be kept for three years in paper form, or indefinitely in electronic form.
In the event of a detector alarm, drivers would be required to:
- Park the vehicle and move to fresh air immediately
- Not place the vehicle back in service until it has been towed to a repair facility and inspected and cleared for CO leaks
- Call 911 or otherwise seek emergency medical attention if experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion, or difficulty breathing.
Daum also requests FMCSA prohibit fuel-burning appliances, including butane, propane, or other fuel-burning cooking stoves or space heaters in the cab, sleeper or trailer of a CMV.
Finally, Daum seeks to require motor carriers to provide each driver with training on CO hazards, exposure sources, prevention measures, detector alarms, poisoning symptoms, and emergency response procedures, with periodic refresher training. Carriers would also be required to perform regularly scheduled preventive maintenance for engine and bunk heater exhaust systems so that carbon monoxide leaks are found and repaired before the vehicle is returned to service.
[Related: In-cab diesel fumes -- separating carbon monoxide fact from fiction]
