Accidents Caused by Truck Driver Fatigue

Accidents caused by truck driver fatigue are disastrous, and sorting out liability for crashes in North Carolina is complicated, even for expert lawyers. Let’s look at the problem and see how truck driver fatigue contributes to many preventable accidents statewide.

Driving while fatigued causes slower reaction times, poor decision-making, “tunnel vision,” and drifting into other lanes. The National Safety Council reports that drowsy driving can be the equivalent of driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 (which is the legal limit for intoxication in North Carolina). It goes without saying that if a truck driver falls asleep due to fatigue, catastrophic results can occur.

A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds. By contrast, the average passenger car weighs 4,000 pounds. Cars don’t stand a chance in a collision with these oversized vehicles. In 2019, there were over 5,000 fatal truck crashes in the United States. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), thirteen percent of these crashes were caused by fatigued truck drivers. That means that 650 lives could have been saved if truck drivers simply pulled off the road and got the sleep they needed.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations state that “No driver shall operate a commercial vehicle…while the driver’s ability or alertness is so impaired, or so likely to become impaired through fatigue…as to make it unsafe for him/her to begin or continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle.”. These same federal regulations mandate that truck drivers may drive for only eleven hours straight before they must stop and take a ten-hour break. Additionally, drivers may drive for only sixty hours each week and seventy hours over eight days.

How the Laws Protect Commercial Drivers

Truck driver regulations don’t go far enough to prevent fatigue accidents in North Carolina. On the surface, a ten-hour break may seem like plenty of time for adequate sleep, but in reality, a continuous pattern of eleven hours driving and ten hours off will severely interfere with a driver’s safety behind the wheel. For instance, if a truck driver started driving on a Monday at 8:00 a.m., he or she would have to stop driving at 7:00 p.m. that evening. A ten-hour break would allow that driver to start driving again at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday The eleven-hour rule would mandate that the driver stop driving at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday The next time the driver could get behind the wheel would be at 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday—the worst possible time to drive, because approximately fifty percent of tractor-trailer crashes involving driver fatigue take place between midnight and 8:00 a.m.

So how do you know whether a crash was caused by truck driver fatigue? A thorough investigation of the truck company’s records is required. Truck companies must keep records regarding the number of hours their drivers are on the road, and how many hours they are waiting at terminals to pick up loads or drop them off. This is done electronically through a monitoring device installed on the truck (drivers once did this by hand). Additionally, some truck companies have installed interior dashcams that will show whether a driver was distracted or “nodding off” at the time of a crash.

Trucking Fatigue Accident Investigation

When Miller Law Group is hired to represent someone or the family of someone seriously hurt or killed in a truck accident liability case in North Carolina, we deploy extensive investigative resources. These are some of the discovery requests we ask for:

1. The load the driver was carrying;
2. All stops for gas, bathroom breaks, and food
3. All stops at terminals
4. All log books for two weeks before the collision
5. Any dashcam video available

Once we have this evidence gathered, we recreate the driver’s route and stops during the days before the crash. This will show whether the driver complied with the federal regulations regarding driving hours. If the driver did not comply with the regulations, it can be assumed the driver was fatigued when the crash occurred. Proving driver fatigue usually leads to larger verdicts.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a crash due to truck driver fatigue in North Carolina, call or contact Miller Law Group today—our truck accident attorneys are standing by to review your case.