Cockeysville Man Fights for Limited Truck Driver Service Hours

More than a year after his wife's death, Ed Slattery still can't come to grips with her passing.

"I have not dealt with it," he said. "I'm afraid it would debilitate me."

The Cockeysville man's wife, Susan Slattery, 47, was driving home from a family reunion in Ohio when her vehicle was struck by a triple-trailer truck. She was killed in the accident in August 2010, and the couple's two sons were critically injured.

"My 17-year-old suffered a fractured hip and my 12-year-old suffered a brain injury," Ed Slattery said. "[The 12-year-old] will never be the same. He is permanantly disabled."

In fact, Ed Slattery had to leave his job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide full-time care for his younger son Mathew, now 14. Money from a court settlement helps pay for Mathew's care.

"He turned 14 recently," Ed Slattery said of his son. "I think he understood it was his birthday this year. Last year, he didn't know what day it was."

On Wednesday, Ed Slattery attended a news conference prior to a House of Representatives subcommitee hearing in Washington to advocate on behalf of reforming truck drivers' hours of service rules. Slattery and others want a maximum of 10 consecutive hours a day behind the wheel for truck drivers. Currently, the truckers are allowed to drive for 11 hours non-stop, according to John Lannen, a representative for the Truck Safety Coalition.

Lannen said that an average of 4,000 people have been killed and an additional 100,000 have been injured each year over the past 10 years because of tired drivers.

"This is a huge safety concern," he said. "It affects the motoring public and the health of the driver."

Ed Slattery said he isn't angry with the driver who caused his wife's death, but wants Congress to understand that safety must be a priority over the business interests of those employing the truckers.

"I want them to understand when they're doing their cost-benefit analysis that the cost is just too great," Slattery said.

In the next few months, he will be traveling to Ohio to deliver an impact statement at the sentencing for the driver who was operating the truck that killed Slattery's wife. He's not sure what he's going to say.

"I'm still mostly numb."