How Overworked Truckers and Overtime Leads to Fatal Accidents

More than ever before truck drivers are facing demands to work overtime with little or no sleep.

They face extreme pressure to make deliveries on a tight schedule. As you can imagine, the truck driver under stress is struggling to stay awake behind the wheel of their massive 18-wheeler. Experienced Alabama and Mississippi area truck accident attorneys Braswell Murphy, LLC understand that these unrealistic schedules greatly increase the likelihood of a serious or fatal truck accident between a big rig and a passenger vehicle.  There are several reasons for this trend:

·         Fierce competition to quickly get product across long distances.

·         Poor economy forces truck drivers to take jobs with unrealistic deadlines.

·         Trucking companies simply put profits over people.

Additionally, to stay awake, many truck drivers use both legal and illegal stimulants such as caffeine, ephedrine, cocaine, and methamphetamines. This can result in poor judgment, impaired vision and a delayed reaction leading to a serious or fatal truck accident. Serious truck accidents involving an 18-wheeler and a car or SUV are more likely to lead to serious injury or death for drivers and passengers of cars.

Proving Liability for Truck Accidents

Determining the liability in truck accidents caused by unrealistic schedules can be a difficult task. The truck accident personal injury attorneys at Braswell Murphy, LLC will help build your case by obtaining:

• Truck driver driving logs (and any sign of falsified driving logs)
• Meal and ATM receipts
• Gas/fuel records
• Hours of operation (as permitted by federal regulations)
• Cell phone records
• Satellite information taken from on-board computer systems

Above all, where an accident with an 18-wheeler occurs, causing serious harm to you or to loved ones, locating and retaining an experienced lawyer qualified to handle such cases is crucial to getting the result, and to compensating you for harm caused to you. Braswell Murphy has extensive experience litigating against 18-wheeler companies.  Attorney Kasie Braswell achieved one of the largest verdicts to ever be awarded against a trucking company on the Mississippi Coast.  She also achieved an unheard of arbitration award against a trucking company (in excess of $2,300,000.00) in a case where a Mobile, Alabama man was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler on a Mississippi interstate.

If you have been involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler or a commercial truck, time is of the essence.  Most trucking companies dispatch lawyers, investigators and other members of their “cleanup crew” as soon as they are notified of an accident (trucking company lawyers and investigators often arrive at accident scenes before the injured people are even out of the hospital).  This is why it is very important to contact a lawyer as soon as possible – you need to ensure that your rights (and the evidence) are protected.

            If you have been involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler or a commercial truck, please contact Braswell Murphy as soon as possible at 800-554-9290.  If the accident occurs after hours or over the weekend, attorney Kasie Braswell welcomes calls to her cell phone at (251) 942-9486.  Don’t wait to contact a lawyer – you can bet the trucking company already has.