Truck Accidents Caused by Driver Fatigue
Washington, D.C., Maryland & Virginia
Driving a tractor-trailer truck is a very responsible occupation. Before you get on the road, you must take full responsibility for the state of the truck and its trailer plus cargo. Once on the road, you must be constantly alert to road conditions and the actions of other drivers, even though the road itself may tend to induce sleepiness. Once a driver becomes fatigued, it leads to impairment of judgment and reflexes, and even the slightest amount of impairment can lead to deadly mistakes. To prevent tractor trailer truck drivers from becoming too fatigued, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) maintains strict regulations about how long truckers are allowed to drive. Unfortunately, some drivers (and the trucking companies they work for) try to get around these rules.
It is not known exactly how big a role fatigue plays in serious and fatal accidents, but some estimates have stated that fatigue is a contributing factor in up to 40% of accidents.
What Is Driver Fatigue?
Driver fatigue is not a simple phenomenon to understand. Much research has gone into attempting to understand what causes fatigue and how to prevent it. Many factors have been implicated, including:
- Sleep deprivation
- Use of alcohol or drugs
- Sleep disorders, including insomnia and sleep apnea
- Length of driving
- Time of driving
- Personal variables
Research shows that some of these are particularly important. Sleep apnea, for example, can increase the risk of accidents by 2- or 3-fold. Driving at night is also an important risk factor, even when a driver is otherwise well-rested, and even a short period of continuous driving can dramatically increase a driver’s reported and measured fatigue, and increase the likelihood a driver will be involved in a serious truck accident.
The Incentive for Long Hours
Trucking companies make more money by moving more freight more quickly. As a result, they pay drivers more to keep freight moving quickly. With speeding being closely monitored, drivers may try to get to their destination faster by driving longer hours, which is harder to monitor. Trucking companies may even give explicit or tacit incentives to drivers that manage to get their cargo to the destination in seemingly impossible time.
Limiting Long Hours
The FMCSA continues to revise the regulations on how long drivers are allowed to be on the road, known as Hours-of-Service (HOS). Currently, a driver is not allowed to drive for more than 11 hours following a 10-hour off-duty period. A driver is also not allowed to drive a large truck beyond 14 hours after coming on-shift. Even if a driver takes a break in the middle of that duty period, the driver cannot extend this period, unless he takes a full 10 hours off. Furthermore, a driver cannot drive more than 60 hours in any 7-day period or 70 hours in any 8-day period. If a driver uses a sleeper berth to take off-duty periods, a driver can only reset his duty period by taking 8 hours in the sleeper berth, plus two hours off-duty, all or part of which may be spent in the sleeper berth.
Most records of driving and off-duty time are kept in paper logbooks, and some drivers have learned (or been taught) how to “manage” the books to appear in compliance with regulations. It may take a significant amount of research to discover when this is being done, but experienced truck accident attorneys, like those at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata, & Siegel know what to look for.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident with a fatigued tractor-trailer truck driver in Washington DC, Virginia or Maryland please email or call our committed truck accident attorneys today.
