St. Paul Personal Injury Attorneys
When most people see a truck on the road, the last thing they think is “What if it loses control?” Trucks are usually among the safest and most reliable driving companions you can have on a road trip. They drive steadily at safe speeds and every driver is certified to be skilled at operating their vehicles. Unfortunately, no matter how skilled a truck driver may be, certain driving conditions can make it impossible for truckers to drive responsibly. You may think that foul weather or unmaintained trucks are the biggest causes of truck accidents. In reality, it’s something as simple and dangerous as driver fatigue.
Have you been injured in an accident with a large truck in Minnesota? If so, chances are the driver and their trucking company are at fault through the common cause of driver fatigue. Driver fatigue occurs when a truck driver does not get enough sleep or is driving in an exhausted state, making it impossible for them to drive safely or respond correctly to dangerous road conditions. However, it may be necessary to prove driver fatigue in order to make a successful personal injury claim to pay for your medical and post-trauma recovery.
Fortunately, an experienced truck accident injury lawyer is well-versed in how to prove a truck driver was fatigued at the time of the crash.
Driver Fatigue is a Leading Cause of Minnesota Truck Crashes
When a truck hits a smaller vehicle, there’s no question about who is most likely to be injured or killed. In 2016, nearly 4,000 people were killed in truck-related accidents and only 17% of those people were the drivers of the trucks themselves according to IIHS fatality statistics. Semi’s and 18-wheelers can weigh as much as 40 tons when fully loaded, meaning that they have more than sufficient mass to bowl over any other vehicle on the road. Even other ‘utility’ vehicles like smaller trucks and SUVs.
The chance of injury when colliding with a large truck is very high. Especially if the driver of that truck is fatigued and unable to use practical evasive maneuvers at the time of the crash. In fact, driver fatigue accounts for approximately 20% of all vehicular crashes, with a higher likelihood for truckers who push themselves or are forced to drive for long hours with insufficient breaks for sleep and recuperation.
What Determines Driver Fatigue?
In a personal injury case, liability must be proven in order to win damages. This involves uncovering cold hard facts that prove who was at fault. If the Minnesota truck accident was caused by driver fatigue, this is something that goes beyond subjective experience and can actually be legally proven in a number of ways. Starting with a legal definition of fatigue-creating circumstances.
Because of the established pattern of driver fatigue causing injuries and fatalities in truck crashes, the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) released a set of regulations that are meant to prevent both shipping companies and drivers from allowing significant driver fatigue. These regulations define how long truckers are allowed to drive without a break and when they need to take more extended breaks in order to recuperate their physical and mental abilities to drive.
According to the FMCSA, a driver may not drive for more than 14 hours after coming on-duty after a 10-hour break. They may not drive for more than 8 hours if their last break was only a nap in the back of the truck. And finally, drivers may not clock more than 60 driving hours every 7 days or 70 driving hours every 8 days, depending on how their scheduling is arranged.
If a driving company pushes their drivers beyond these regulated maximum driving hours, they are at fault for the driver’s fatigue. And if a driver pushes themselves, they and possibly their company are at fault. The key to a strong case is proving that drivers have exceeded their regulated drive time. Fortunately, there are a surprising number of ways to find clues.
The Initial Police Report
One of the first pieces of evidence that can prove a truck driver’s incapacity is the initial police report. Police officers are trained to recognize the difference between someone upset by an accident and someone who is severely sleep deprived. If the driver has blood-shot eyes, or is clearly exhausted beyond the stress of an accident, the police may make note of it in their report.
The driver themselves may admit that they were too tired to respond correctly to the accident as it was happening. This, too, will be noted in the police report. If these notes exist, then proving driver fatigue has a solid foundation.
Time of the Accident
The time of day an accident takes place can also indicate whether or not a truck driver was fatigued. Drivers operating in the small hours of the morning (1 am to 5 am) are more likely to have been driving all night. This means that they may have continued driving past the official end of their shift in order to make better overall time on the route. Drivers who skip their regulated sleep and rest periods are legally fatigued whether or not the driver ‘felt sleepy’ when they were mandated to take a break.
Lack of Accident Avoidance
Of course, one of the clearest signs that the driver was impaired, one way or another, is whether they tried to avoid the accident at all. Normally, when someone sees an accident ahead, they will try to regain control of their vehicle or steer away from the danger. However, when a driver is exhausted behind the wheel, they may not notice the danger at all.
After analyzing the crash details, it can often be determined whether a driver was nearly unconscious, judging that they did not try to stop or avoid the accident. A truck that runs off the road or into another lane, or one that fails to dodge an obstacle in the road, is a clear sign that mostlikely one where the driver is too fatigued to safely operate their vehicle.
Billed Hours With the Company
Another way to identify an overworked truck driver is to look at the hours they have billed. Drivers may bill more driving hours than regulation for a number of reasons. They may be trying to accumulate more pay or they may be under pressure from the shipping company to complete drives more quickly than regulations officially allow for. There are also sometimes efficiency bonuses for finishing a drive faster than normal and drivers are tempted by the promise of additional pay.
No matter the reason, it’s not uncommon for a fatigued driver to have logged their hours beyond what FMCSA regulations allow for. If this is in the records, then legal fatigue is automatically proven.
Driver’s Personal Logbook
And if the numbers aren’t in the official records, then sometimes the driver’s personal notes will reveal the truth. Many drivers are required to keep a precise logbook of when they take breaks and even what mile-marker they pulled over for a rest. Even if this is not required by the company, drivers who learned to keep records like this often keep their own personal logbook that can be checked to reveal exactly how long a driver has been on the road. A logbook may document fatigue both the day of the accident and over the entire week beforehand, since fatigue can be cumulative.
Purposefully Missing Evidence
And if company records or the driver’s personal logbook are missing or destroyed before a legal check can be made, this is another fact that can be used as evidence in court. Purposefully destroying records is an indication that the driver or company knew they were doing something wrong and that it needed to be covered up after the accident occurred.
If there was a provable coverup, then an additional crime has been committed what points to hiding the initial proof of legal driver fatigue.
Tolls and Receipts
However, even if there are no clear record of hours (or the records have been falsely kept within regulations) your lawyer may have other ways of proving that the truck driver was fatigued. Just like when you’re on a road trip, everything truck drivers do on the road creates a paper trail. Stopping for gas, toll booths, meals, and hotel rooms all create dated receipts. These receipts will come together to show a timeline of where the trucker was when. And the distance between each place compared to the times can establish how far they drove and whether they were driving during certain hours.
Whether working with paper receipts or card transaction records, if the facts show that the trucker driving more than recorded or regulated hours, they are legally fatigued and at fault for any accidents that occur when they are physically overtaxed.
In-Vehicle Tracking Technology
Interestingly enough, there is another way to track where a trucker was when, and during what hours they were really driving. Many modern trucks include in-vehicle tracking that allows the company to keep track of every vehicle. While these are normally in place to ensure each truck is well-maintained and on-route, the records can also be checked to establish when and for how long the truck was in motion. Therefore, how long the driver was driving.
An OBD device tracks the engine and electrical system and can collect data on vehicle performance. Including speed the vehicle was going. This means you could confirm the number of hours the truck had been driving that day. And GPS tracking provides the precise location of the vehicle, so GPS records could also reveal if the truck had been in motion for more time than is recorded on the company time sheets.
In some cases, the onboard technology may be precise enough to tell you if the driver had been having trouble maintaining lane position or had been driving unsafely before the accident occurred.
Driver’s Medical History
Finally, it’s also important to note that time spent driving isn’t the only reason why a truck driver might be legally too fatigued to drive. After all, fatigue is a physical and mental state that can be affected by more than hours behind the wheel. If the driver who hit you is already exhausted for other reasons, it doesn’t matter how long they’ve been driving.
Sometimes, a driver is suffering from a medical problem that causes them to be more easily fatigued than usual. Their buying history alone might reveal a pattern of medications or extreme caffeine use that would indicate a long-term fatigue problem. Alternately, it’s possible your lawyer may be able to requisition the driver’s medical records to prove that they were not in fit physical or mental condition to drive for long hours.
Have You Been Injured in a Minnesota Truck Accident?
Being hit by a truck or injured in a truck-related accident can be a traumatic experience and many people may feel that there is little to no way to prove the truck driver was at fault. In reality, no matter how big the trucking company is, the truth can be found. As you can see, there are a wide variety of ways your Minnesota personal injury attorney could both discover and prove in court that the truck driver was fatigued beyond a reasonable ability to operate their vehicle.
In most cases, a fatigued driver will have been provably driving more hours than FMCSA allows for and, in some cases, the fatigue may also relate to an existing exhaustion or medical problem. Either way, if you were injured in an accident involving a fatigued truck driver, there is a good chance that the case can be proven.
If you need the help of a Minnesota personal injury attorney who knows how to handle truck-related accidents, contact us today! We are always ready to provide a consultation and guidance on a case. You deserve to be compensated for your injuries and traumatic experience. Let us help.