FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - A crash took place in Madison County on Tuesday involving four semi-trucks.
Two people were injured in that collision.
Officials say one of the drivers fell asleep and hit one parked semi, creating a domino effect hitting the other two.
Kentucky law says that no vehicle is allowed to be parked or stopped on the shoulders or ramps of any highway.
This situation has raised a new concern: If semi-truck drivers are not allowed to park on shoulders or exits, where else can they park?
Kentucky Trucking Association CEO and President Rick Taylor says this poses a problem for truckers.
“The issue is that they have hours of service rules, which is a 14-hour day, but no longer than 11 hours driving, so they do have the need to park,” Taylor said.
Taylor says the issue with parking does not end there.
“In the country, there’s only 313,000 commercial truck parking spaces, but we have 3.5 million commercial vehicles, so obviously, the math does not add up,” he said. “That’s about one space per eleven vehicles.”
This problem often leaves truckers with the dilemma of going over their hours of service rules to find the next parking spot or ending their shift early if they do find one.
“From a making a living level, they’re losing about 5,000 dollars per year by parking an hour early, but sometimes that’s the best option they have to go with,” he added.
Taylor adds that things are looking up for truckers. He says there are several pieces of legislation currently in Congress, including the Truck Parking Improvement Act. This provides funding specifically toward truck parking.
‘Having adequate truck parking for a professional truck driver doing that job for us is important, and I think its something that needs to be addressed,” Taylor added.
Taylor added that the American Transport Research Institute released that truck parking is the second leading concern for truckers, with the economy being number one.