The state police, particularly the commercial vehicle enforcement division, is using a "checklist" interview to determine if, in the officer's opinion, a trucker is too fatigued to be driving. This checklist is not based upon any scientific or medical criteria at all, and was put together by the head of the department.

The cop basically interviews the driver, without actually telling the driver he/she is being interviewed or evaluated, and asks a series of questions and makes certain observations to determine if, in his/her opinion, that driver is fatigued.

What sorts of questions do they ask or observations do they make?

They ask a driver his/her neck size.

Huh?

Does the driver have a tv and/or laptop in his/her sleeper?

WTF?

Is the trash can full?

What the hell does this have to do with driver fatigue?

Does the driver have any pornographic magazines or movies in the sleeper?

Again, WTF?

How is the driver's home life?

Yet again, WTF?

Are there empty soda cans/bottles or coffee cups in the truck?

And this pertains to fatgue how?

How many times a week does the driver masturbate?

This is going way over the edge here!

And this goes on and on. The MN cops are overstepping their authority by leaps and bounds here, and a good many drivers have been placed out of service recently, not because their log books were wrong, or because they had driven too many hours, but simply because some cop, using this checklist, determined that the driver must be fatigued. Absurd!

There is already a lawsuit brewing over this and I expect this practice to be thrown out soon, but how does a police force get away with this shit to begin with? Nothing under the current commercial driver laws allows them to do this. They can check out the log book and such, but simply do not have the authority to do this sort of thing, shutting down drivers who are perfectly legal to run.

This is a police department run wild, making up their own laws and practices as they please. As citizens of the United States we should all be offended and angered by this sort of thing.