Truck Driver Fatigue and Highway Accidents
Interstate truck drivers are generally bound by Hours of Service (HOS) limits and required to keep records of their time spent on the road, as well as off-duty time and time spent on-duty but not driving. There are also strict limits on consecutive hours of driving a truck and the required rest before doing so. Despite these regulations, however, fatigue is still a serious problem among professional truck drivers and this can and does cause devastating accidents across the country.
Many of these truck drivers are burdened with strict and even unrealistic demands which they are forced to attempt to meet. They are sometimes forced to race against time to make deliveries and make up for lost time which was not their fault in the first place, which can aggravate a lack of sleep and take their focus off the road. Driver fatigue is among the most common causes of traffic accidents involving large trucks, and some studies believe it causes as much as half of all of these accidents.
Fatigued driving is similar to intoxicated driving in some key ways, including slowed reaction-times, impaired decision-making skills, and altered depth-perception, particularly at night. Accidents caused by fatigued truck drivers, especially when one falls asleep at the wheel, can be devastating and may involve multiple injuries and even fatalities.
The 2014 chain-reaction accident involving comedian Tracy Morgan was a grim reminder of this problem which brought nationwide media attention: late at night on the New Jersey Turnpike, a Mercedes Sprinter bus carrying Morgan and others was hit from behind by a Walmart tractor-trailer. The lawsuit alleges that the driver dozed off and struck the bus while attempting to avoid traffic directly in front of it, and that he “had been awake for more than 24 hours before the crash.”
While new federal regulations limit a truck driver’s workday to fourteen hours, they also remove the flexibility to take two- or three-hour breaks if they are necessary. Instead, according to trucking industry members, they are forced to max out these fourteen hours, which can worsen their fatigue rather than relieve it. The debate over the implementation and interpretation of these laws is ongoing. Determining liability in a truck accident can be far more complex than for a typical auto accident.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a collision involving a large truck, contact 844 See Mike for a free consultation. We are a Chicago-based injury law firm representing individuals (and their families) who have suffered an injury in an accident. We will handle your case quickly and advise you every step of the way, and we will not hesitate to go to trial for you.
Lastly, 844 See Mike is not paid attorneys’ fees unless we win your case. Our no-fee promise is that simple. You have nothing to risk when you hire us – only the opportunity to seek justice.
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