A national trucker drivers’ association is suing the Minnesota State Patrol, contending that it is illegally taking rigs out of service based on a secret interrogation checklist that officers use in the hopes of catching operators who are too tired to be on the road.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday (5/13/9) in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc. on behalf of drivers Stephen K. House of Sprindale, Wash., and Gary B. Page, of Spencer, Wis. Named as defendants, all with the patrol, are Chief Mark Dunaski, Capt. Ken Urquhart and a handful of officers.
“We consider this … an outrageous abuse of police power and an intolerable violation of the civil and constitutional rights of professional truckers,” said Jim Johnston, president of the association, the largest in the nation representing professional truckers. “We see no justification for this conduct either scientifically or in rational, legitimate law enforcement.”
A copy of the suit and the checklist were forwarded to the State Patrol this morning for comment. A spokesman said the patrol was declining to say anything because it involves pending litigation.
The suit says that the checklist was created by Urquhart, and officers were “strongly urged” in an internal memo to use it when stopping truckers, even though it “does not define fatigue, nor does it incorporate any medically or clinically tested and approved methods for measuring fatigue.”
The suit adds that the patrol has failed to make this checklist public and used it to remove House and Page from behind the wheel.
The checklist, the suit says, includes various criteria to evaluate, among them: driver’s mood and cleanliness, odor in the cab, overflowing ashtrays, presence of a urine bottle. Also on the list, the suit says: driver’s neck size, tendency to be overly agreeable, presence of a cell phone, access to the Internet.
In this episode of the blind spot trucker talk show we covered quite a bit of ground, our main focus of the show was to discuss the legality and our personal opinions on this controversial topic.
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