Sleep Deprivation Suspected in Morgan Crash
BALDWIN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Comedian Tracy Morgan remains in critical condition this morning as we are learning more about what caused that deadly crash that landed Morgan and three others in the hospital. Take a look at the new video. This is what we have from TMZ and it shows the utter panic in the desperate moments after the crash. Now, prosecutors now say the truck driver who slammed into Morgan's vehicle had been awake for more than 24 hours before that accident. So, Mary Schiavo, let me bring you in, former inspector general for the U.S. Transportation Department. Mary, good morning to you.</s>MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, DOT: Good morning.</s>BALDWIN: You know, I read this whole article that you had written based upon this Harvard study 2012. We talk a lot about drivers, truckers, lack of sleep versus how that equates almost driving drunk and you say you know what? It's actually worse.</s>SCHIAVO: Right. In many cases, both Harvard and Stanford researchers show being sleepy has effects on the body that are worse than being drunk because the neurons you need in your brain that you most need when you're awake, in order, let's you sense what you're seeing and react, shut down first. Like your brain decides on itself, I'm tired and I had enough and they shut it down. So, truckers they found would see, for example, traffic obstruction and literally the brains wouldn't register it, so it was worse in some cases than being drunk.</s>BALDWIN: That's frightening. You drive along on the highways we' aware of the massive trucks driving along. They have to be out there. But I'm wondering, though. Obviously, we're talking about the wake in this particular accident, but how widespread is this issue of sleep deprivation?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, it's terribly widespread. Americans, more than 35 percent of Americans have reported that they regularly get less than seven hours of sleep a night and there approximately 4,000 highway, traffic highway deaths caused every year by tired truckers and the entire drivers in addition to tired truckers, bring that number up to about 7,800 a year. So it's a very widespread problem and probably about a third of the accidents are caused by being tired.</s>BALDWIN: So, here is the issue and it just so happens that recently, you know, there are laws on the books for how long truckers can go before they have that mandatory break. But this Senate committee, a couple of days ago, they voted to ease the restrictions, right, to allow these truckers to cut the maximum workweek to 70 hours from 82. You know, the trucking industry says, listen, if you tighten these things up on us, you'll create more traffic, not to mention your shipping costs will go up. What do you say to that?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, first of all, it won't (ph) create more traffic. It would actually probably create less because you go back to regular normal schedules. But time is money, and that is what truckers say and that's what trucker companies say. But working 82 -- you know, 80 hours a week means you're working double jobs. And what they found also is when you're doing that, and if you don't get the critical time period of sleep -- I know you at NEW DAY probably don't get it very often.</s>BALDWIN: Not enough. Not enough.</s>SCHIAVO: But from 1:00 to 5:00, if you don't get those hours, then you -- you really have a problem with functioning normally. And truckers, if they are working, you know, literally 80 hours a week, you can't make that up in the afternoon or evening because you're working, and so that is the problem with the schedule that literally has them working double hours. It's impossible to make up for that sleep. And having a day and a half off just won't do it. You just can't catch up for that punishing schedule. So Congress and the Senate are going to do something very bad in rolling back these safety regulations, and the number of deaths will go up. That's been proven. They did a study in New England where they showed they increased -- you know, they -- they decreased the rate and the deaths went up.</s>BALDWIN: But, Mary, just quickly, this trucker was driving for Walmart. Walmart says, listen, if it's found that the truck was responsible, we will take full responsibility. But technology today, these companies can monitor their truckers to see if they are sleeping!</s>SCHIAVO: Exactly. The companies can monitor their truckers, and the issue that many say, though, is you can't monitor the truckers in his or off off-duty hours. And they found the same thing with pilots and nuclear plant operates, et cetera. So they are supposed to be home sleeping and they are not, and the company says, well, what do you want us to do? Be the nanny and monitor them at all times? Well, you know, you -- you solve that by saying you got to make sure you have behind the door time. You know, in your time off you have to be in a place where you can sleep behind the door eight hours, so you can refresh your body. And you can't be the nanny, but you can schedule them to make sure that happens. And technically by law, Walmart probably did to that, and they should have done it. It's the law, but it'll remain to be seen what the facts are.</s>BALDWIN: We'll wait to see the facts. We'll also wait to see if there are any changes on Capitol Hill. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.</s>SCHIAVO: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Chris, it's definitely something to think about, you know when you're out on a road trip. You see all the truckers around wondering, "Are they sleeping? Is this safe?" Things to think about.</s>CUOMO: Mary is dead right. Safety issues are really clear. The question is who wins this situation about leverage. Is it going to be the industry who wins or public safety? So we will be following this story. Thanks for doing that for us, Brooke. Come on back to the desk. We're gonna take a break here on NEW DAY. When we come back, she somehow survived this brutal attack. Remember, 12-year-old girl allegedly stabbed 19 times by two friends. Well, the good news -- there actually is good news. She's home back in Wisconsin. We are talking to a family friend about a stunning survival, the outpouring support that this young girl is receiving and what is going to happen next.