Many truck drivers want to make as many deliveries as they can in the shortest time possible in order to make the maximum amount of money. This means that many drivers are willing to spend numerous continuous hours and days on the road with little rest to travel long distances as quickly as they can. Though they may believe they are capable of continuous driving without much rest, truck drivers are just as susceptible to fatigue as anyone else. Additionally, commercial truck drivers are usually alone in the cab and often travel on a route they have traveled many times before. Such monotony and isolation only makes fatigue worse.
Driving while fatigued is extremely dangerous and can cause the following dangerous reactions:
- Delayed response times
- Lack of mental concentration
- Difficulty with visual focus
- Spacing out or daydreaming unintentionally
- Restlessness or fidgeting
- Not being aware of surrounding traffic conditions
- Not being able to keep eyes open
- General drowsiness
- Actually falling asleep while behind the wheel
Such mental and physical manifestations of fatigue can easily cause severe accidents and injuries to other motorists. An experienced Alpharetta truck accident lawyer from Boling Rice, LLC can examine hours of service records and other documents to determine if a driver was negligently in violation of federal regulations.
In response to the dangers of fatigued driving, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has enacted several regulation regarding truck driver hours of service. These regulations strictly require truck drivers to take certain rest breaks and sleep breaks, and limit the number of continuous hours or days a driver can work without resting. Unfortunately, many drivers continue to violate these regulations in order to complete deliveries faster. Additionally, many drivers may try to falsify records to hide hours of service violations. It often takes an experienced and investigative eye to identify false records and hours of service violations in a truck accident case.
Even if you do not have the records to prove a violation of the law, physical signs of fatigue may be enough to prove the truck driver was negligent. If you have been injured in a commercial truck accident and believe that the driver showed signs of fatigue, you may be entitled to recover for all of your injuries from the negligent driver.
Practice Areas:
Tractor Trailer Accidents
Boling Rice LLC
2475 Northwinds Pkwy, Suite 200
Alpharetta, Georgia 3009
Phone: (770) 355-0780
