Most adults will admit that they do not get enough sleep at night. However, when someone is operating a massive tractor-trailer, sleep deprivation can be extremely dangerous. Fatigued truck drivers are slower to react to sudden changes in traffic and may make potentially deadly mistakes behind the wheel. Some truck drivers are so tired that they actually fall asleep while driving. If you or a loved one was hurt in a truck crash, it is possible that truck driver fatigue was a contributing factor.

If you or a loved one have been injured in a truck accident, it’s crucial to have a personal injury lawyer experienced in truck accidents advocating for you. At Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp, our car accident law firm has extensive experience handling these complex cases. We are committed to ensuring our clients receive the compensation they deserve. Contact us today at 833-997-1774 for a free consultation to discuss your case and explore your legal options.

What Is the Impact of Sleep Deprivation on a Truck Driver?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that being awake for more than 17 consecutive hours has the same effect on cognitive and physical processes as having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 percent. If someone is awake for more than 24 hours, his or her impairment is equivalent to having a BAC of 0.10 percent. Commercial truck drivers operate vehicles that often weigh up to 80,000 lbs. or more. If a truck driver is too sleepy to drive the truck safely, catastrophic truck accidents may occur.

How Widespread Is Truck Driver Fatigue?

One of the most serious hazards everyone on Virginia’s roads faces is driver fatigue. When an exhausted driver gets behind the wheel of their vehicle, they not only put themselves at risk but also endanger the lives of other commuters. Driver fatigue is an especially prevalent problem with commercial truck drivers, and accidents caused by drowsy truck drivers are often even more catastrophic than car accidents, given the massive size and weight of these vehicles.

Truck drivers spend incredibly long hours on the road, under pressure to meet strict delivery schedules expected by their companies. The statistics for truck driver fatigue are alarming, with almost 15 percent of truck crashes that occur each year involving a truck driver suffering from fatigue; when this data is compared with the number of victims killed or injured each year – 4,000 and 100,000, respectively.

What Are the Hours of Service Regulations?

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has instituted rules regarding how many hours truck drivers can drive consecutively. These regulations are supposed to prevent truck drivers from driving while they are too tired to drive responsibly. Unfortunately, truck drivers do not always adhere to these rules. Truck drivers are expected to meet tight deadlines and deal with unexpected traffic delays. As a result, they may continue driving past the FMCSA-imposed limit to meet these deadlines. In some cases, trucking companies encourage or even force truck drivers to violate federal regulations limiting the number of hours they can drive without a rest break.

The rules regarding how many hours a commercial truck driver is allowed to operate their vehicle and how many hours of rest time and breaks they are required to take are regulated and enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). These rules are referred to as Hours of Service (HOS). The current rules are:

  • A truck driver is only permitted to work for up to 11 hours in a row.
  • A truck driver is only permitted to drive for 11 consecutive hours immediately after at least 10 straight hours off duty.
  • A truck driver is only allowed to drive a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) if not more than eight hours have passed since they last had a break of at least 30 minutes.
  • A truck driver is not permitted to drive a CMV after being on duty for 60 hours in a seven-day time span or 70 hours in an eight-day time span. They may begin working again after 34 straight hours of being off duty.

Truck drivers are expected to keep track of the hours they spend driving and the hours they rest in a logbook. Increasingly, electronic logbooks are replacing pen-and-paper logbooks. Although electronic logbooks are harder to falsify, truck drivers violating hours of service regulations continues to be a major problem.

How Can Your Personal Injury Law Firm Help?

If you or a loved one were injured in a truck accident, do not try to deal with the trucking company and its insurance company on your own. Call Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp at 833-997-1774 to schedule a free consultation and find out how we can help get you the compensation you are entitled to. We handle cases on a contingency-fee basis, so you won’t pay any legal fees unless we win your case.