Assessing Truck Driver Fatigue as a Contributing Factor in Accidents in Michigan

Have You Been in a Crash With a Commercial Truck?

Any type of motor vehicle accident has the potential for major injuries and even death. But when a passenger vehicle is involved in an accident with a commercial vehicle, some weighing upwards of 80,000 pounds when fully loaded, injuries are almost certain, and death is far more likely.

If you have been involved in an accident with a commercial truck, waste management truck, delivery truck, or any other large, commercially operated vehicle, you are probably looking for answers. Sigal Law Firm intends to help you find those answers, and our first question is usually, “Did driver fatigue cause this accident?”

Let’s go over how we assess truck driver fatigue and how it affected your accident.

What Are the Most Common Causes of Truck Accidents?

Understanding what causes truck accidents gives us a checklist of what could have caused your accident. While trucker fatigue is among the most common causes of truck accidents, there are other causes that we take a look at when determining who is liable for your accident.

Here are the most common causes of truck accidents we look for:

• Driver fatigue: Long hours on the road lead to exhaustion, slower reaction times, and poor judgment.
• Distracted driving: Handling their phone, using a GPS, or paying attention to other in-cab distractions poses a major hazard.
• Speeding: Loaded trucks take a long time to stop, and speeding makes it practically impossible to stop safely when snap decisions are necessary.
• Improper lane changes and turns: Truckers must be aware of their blind spots and wide turn radius. An unsafe turn can cause significant damage to the drivers around them.
• Overloaded cargo: Shifting, unbalanced, or improperly loaded cargo can cause rollovers, jackknifing, or loss of control.
• Driving under the influence: Driving while under the influence of alcohol, drugs, and prescription medications.
• Road rage: Tailgating, brake-checking, and aggressive lane changes that can lead to major accidents.

Why Is Trucker Fatigue So Dangerous?

According to the Sleep Foundation, fatigued driving may be the cause of around 6,000 deaths per year in America, which is close to 21% of all crash-related fatalities. Drowsy driving has many things in common with drunk driving, meaning a truck driver who drives without enough sleep has comparable reaction time and alertness as someone who is driving intoxicated.

While there is no way to measure drowsiness in the same way as using blood alcohol content to measure intoxication, experts have been able to make some parallel comparisons.

Drowsiness compared to intoxication translates close to something like this:

• 18 hours of being awake is comparable to a BAC of 0.05%
• 20 hours of being awake is comparable to a BAC of 0.08%
• 24 hours of being awake is comparable to a BAC of 0.1%

Driving with a BAC of 0.08% is illegal in every state in America, but for commercial vehicle drivers, a BAC of 0.04% is the legal threshold.

According to the Sleep Foundation, sleeping less than 8 hours before driving can have the following effects on a driver’s cognitive abilities. It breaks down as follows:

• Sleeping 6-7 hours: Minor decline in reaction time.
• Sleeping 5-6 hours: Noticeable decrease in vigilance and increased likelihood of distraction.
• Sleeping 4-5 hours: Significant impairment in reaction time and decision-making.
• Sleeping less than 4 hours: Severe cognitive impairment, including microsleeps and lapses in attention.
• Awake for 24 hours: Microsleeps and total attention failure.

How Is Liability Determined?

If your personal injury attorney believes that fatigue contributed to your accident, they will immediately begin investigating the lead. In order to prove liability and who should be responsible for your damages, your attorney must prove these four elements:

1. Duty of care: The truck driver had a legal duty to operate in a safe manner. Example: Sleeping enough and avoiding overworking themselves.
2. Breach: They breached that legal duty. Example: Operating their vehicle without enough sleep.
3. Causation: Their breach caused your car accident. Example: The truck driver fell asleep or reacted too late and caused the accident.
4. Damages: You suffered measurable damages as a result of the trucker’s actions. Example: Property damage, medical expenses, lost wages, etc.

Truck drivers must follow rules and regulations defined by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). These rules heavily regulate the amount of time a trucker can operate and how much time they must have off.

Here is a very simplified version of these rules:

• Truckers can only drive 11 hours after 10 consecutive off-duty hours.
• The 11 hours must occur within a 14-hour window; after 14 hours, the driver must take off 10 consecutive hours.
• After eight consecutive hours of driving, drivers must take a minimum 30-minute non-driving break.
• Drivers can not drive after 60 hours on duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days.

These hours must be logged, either by an electronic logging device, paper logs, or roadside inspections. A personal injury attorney will gain access to this information to check if driver fatigue contributed to your accident.

Can Sigal Law Firm Help You?

Our personal injury attorneys are ready to help you right now. After you receive medical attention but before you speak with the insurance companies, call 248-671-6794 to schedule a free consultation with our firm.

We will immediately start investigating your case and ensure valuable information isn’t “misplaced” or destroyed. We will work with witnesses and experts to build your case. If the trucking company, driver, or insurance company refuses to cooperate, we will pursue compensation through litigation.

Sigal Law Firm is ready to help you with your commercial truck accident case.