Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Are Truckers Looking Out for the Safety of Those They Share the Roadways With?

Most of us have encountered drivers who are talking on a cell phone, texting, driving recklessly or too fast for the road conditions, or engaging in any number of other distractions which take critical attention away from the road and other drivers. Assume for a moment that driver is sitting behind the wheel of a fully-loaded 80,000 pound commercial truck, possibly even transporting hazardous cargo. The scenario suddenly seems much more alarming. After all, a large truck can literally crush a smaller vehicle in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, truck drivers are routinely speeding from one job to the next, under pressure from their employers to get the loads delivered quickly and under financial pressure as well. Truck drivers only get paid for the time spent behind the wheel of the truck, and when they are not behind the wheel, the end-of-month paycheck reflects that.

Talking and Texting While behind the Wheel

The Department of Transportation believes other drivers should feel safe sharing the road with large commercial trucks. A regulation in 2010 banned all drivers of commercial vehicles from texting behind the wheel and implemented severe penalties for those who continue to text. The employer of a texting truck driver could be fined as much as $11,000 while the driver could face fines up to $2,500. Additionally, a texting truck driver could lose their CDL license—and thus their livelihood, for up to four months. The DOT went a step further, banning all truck drivers from talking on a cell phone while driving unless they were using a hands-free device. This ban was a direct result of the more than 5,000 fatalities attributed to trucking accidents involving a distracted truck driver in 2009 alone.

Driver Distraction

Like any driver, truck drivers are subject to a myriad of distractions while behind the wheel. Many truck drivers grab fast food meals along the way, eating while driving to save precious time. Inexperienced drivers are also fairly common despite the fact that there are regulations in place which dictate how much training a driver will have prior to driving on their own. Other drivers may be fiddling with the radio or GPS, or could be exhausted from spending too many hours driving.

Fatigued Drivers

New regulations prohibit truck drivers from driving for any period longer than eleven hours; after this eleven hour shift, the driver is required to take ten hours off—presumably sleeping. Throughout the course of a week, truck drivers may not spend more than sixty hours within seven days behind the wheel of their truck. While these rules are certainly an improvement, imagine how exhausted you would be if you spent eleven hours at a time driving. Research shows that the risk of a truck driver being involved in an accident more than doubles when they drive for periods longer than 8-10 hours and more than a third of all trucking accidents can be tied to driver fatigue.

Logbook Violations

Even so, it is extremely likely that at any given moment there are scores of truck drivers on the roadways who are driving while mentally and physically exhausted and have driven much further than the industry average of 2500 miles in any given week. In fact, within the trucking industry logbooks are sometimes referred to as “comic books,” simply because they are notoriously less-than-accurate. It is estimated that over 200,000 logbook violations are found each year and it is impossible to know how many more violations have actually occurred. Further, while trucking companies are required to keep logbook records for a period of six months, once that time has passed, those records can disappear so long as no accident occurred during that time period. No matter how many miles the trucker has driven over the course of his or her career, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that one in twenty drivers of large commercial trucks will be involved in an accident at some point. The trucking industry is expected to show rapid growth over the next ten years which means trucking accidents will only increase.

Getting the Help You Deserve

If you are the victim of a truck driver who was fatigued, distracted or driving recklessly, you should seek the advice and counsel of an experienced truck accident lawyer. Trucking accidents are much more complex than accidents involving only passenger vehicles as there may be multiple persons and entities who can be held liable as well as different statute of limitations. An 18-wheeler accident lawyer who fights aggressively for your rights can make the difference in your future.

Author: Sullo & Sullo Attorneys

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