Every year, almost 5,000 people die in the United States in crashes with trucks. The National Transportation Safety Board estimates that tired truckers cause 30 to 40 percent of truck crashes. Wal-Mart is one of the country’s worst 100 carriers in regards to truck crash rates, according to the Department of Transportation.

In 2003 alone, 5,382 Wal-Mart truckers traveled the roadways, and 173 Wal-Mart trucks were involved in highway crashes that caused 10 fatalities. Despite the truck accident risks, Wal-Mart, and other retail and short-haul truckers, are pushing a measure that would extend truckers’ workdays to 16 hours.

This amount of time spent on the roads is shown to dramatically increase the number of highway crashes, but U.S. Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) plans on introducing the measure as an amendment to the highway bill tomorrow on the House floor.

Sixteen hours on the roads is double a standard eight-hour workday and two hours longer than the day truckers now may be required to work, according to safety advocates. The president of Public Citizen, Joan Claybrook, believes increasing the number of hours truckers must drive to 16 hours is “inhumane.” Public Citizen has been working for years to lower the number of hours in a trucker’s workday.

The Wal-Mart amendment would require truckers to work 10 hours extra every year, which adds up to a maximum of two extra months of work per year with no pay. Research has shown that working more than 60 hours per week in any occupation increased the odds of a sleep related vehicle crash by 40 percent.

In addition to trying to protect truck driver health, the safety groups are trying to protect public safety from dangerous trucking accidents. The public safety advocates called on Congress to defeat the measure.