Our roads and highways are flooded with trucks transporting goods across the United States. The trucking industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that is vital to the functioning of our society. Commercial trucks are everywhere, bringing products to individuals, corporations, and delivery centers all over the country. Due to the size of trucks, truck accidents can cause severe injuries to both the truck driver and the occupants of any vehicle they crash into.
What Is Truck Driver Fatigue?
Any type of vehicle accident can be caused by driver fatigue. A driver’s judgment and reaction times are negatively affected by their fatigue, which can lead to an accident. However, truck drivers may be more prone to fatigue than other drivers, given the distances they travel and the number of hours they drive.
Why Truck Driver Fatigue May Be Relevant to Your Accident
Because being involved in a crash with a commercial truck is potentially devastating to all parties involved, there’s a federal agency that governs the trucking industry: the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The FMCSA has rules about how many hours a truck driver may drive at a single stretch and how many hours they must rest and be off-duty. These are known as the Hours of Service, or HOS.
Truck drivers are also required to keep a detailed record, called a truck driver’s travel log, of these hours for each hour of every day they drive. The record includes their driving hours, rest and off-duty hours, and the number of miles they drive.
When we investigate your accident to determine its cause, we will examine the truck driver’s travel log. If the truck driver had far exceeded the number of driving hours allowed by the FMCSA immediately before the accident, then it could be the case that the accident was caused by the truck driver’s fatigue. This would mean that the truck driver and potentially their employer is liable for the accident, you could be entitled to compensation from them.
Truck Accident Injuries
Commercial trucks can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds when fully loaded. As a result, truck accident injuries can be severe and life-threatening because of the increased impact of the collision. Some injuries may be fatal. Common injuries sustained in trucking accidents include:
- Brain injuries, including traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and severe concussions
- Neck injuries
- Back injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Paralysis
- Broken limbs and bones
- Visual and hearing loss or impairment
- Severe burns
- Organ damage
- Amputations
- Damaged or sprained muscles
- Cuts
- Disfigurement
- Mental disorders, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression
These injuries may require extensive medical treatment and rehabilitation, depending on how severe they are.
How We Can Help
The OnderLaw attorneys are accident attorneys who have been fighting for justice for our clients injured due to others’ wrongdoing for decades. We are skilled in accident law in both California and Missouri and have gained unmatched experience in handling a wide range of personal injury cases. We are dedicated to each and every client and support them every step of the way throughout the legal process and their recovery.
We’ve successfully represented our clients who have suffered severe injuries in trucking accidents and helped them obtain substantial settlements. Some trucking accident settlements and awards we’ve secured for our clients include:
- A $6,000,000 settlement for our client who was partially paralyzed and suffered severe vision, brain, and arm injuries after a truck driver ran a red light and collided with our client’s vehicle
- A $3,900,000 settlement for our client whose loved one was fatally injured in a drunk driving collision with a truck that had design defects that directly contributed to the severity of the collision and injuries sustained
- A $1,084,000 settlement for our client, a family, who were struck by a truck on the side of a highway and suffered neck and back injuries and broken bones as a result
It should be noted that just because we’ve had great success in thousands of accident cases and secured billions of dollars in compensation for past clients, we can’t guarantee the same result in your case. Every case is different, and any possible compensation will be dictated by the merits of your case. You have our 100 percent commitment, however, to use our experience and legal skills to the best of our ability and to utilize the legal strategies that have helped us achieve the best outcomes for our clients in the past.
Give Us a Call
If you’ve been severely injured in a trucking accident and you think the truck driver’s fatigue may have caused the crash, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact the experienced truck accident attorneys of OnderLaw today for a free consultation.
