Truck Accidents from Lack of Sleep

• October 7 2016
• |   Truck Accidents

There are a number of conditions that could lead to a truck accident. Sleepy drivers are probably the biggest factors in truck accidents. There are federal and State regulations and laws on how much drivers can drive in a day and how much sleep they are supposed to get the night before, but a lot of times they are pushing the limit.

Even their required logs of evaluation don’t take into account what other things are going on in their lives, whether or not they are getting adequate sleep when they are resting, stresses at home, hidden addictions, etc.

Anybody who is on the road for a long period of time will suffer the effects of being tired, blurry vision, and so on.

Additionally, when drivers do pull off to take a rest, where they do so makes a big difference. Truck drivers are required to pull off in a rest area to stop, but sometimes they aren’t able to safely do that. Maybe the rest area is full with truck drivers who have already parked there. This can cause a driver to be forced to choose a different spot. Sometimes the spot they choose is less than ideal and accidents happen.

We had a case where the truck didn’t pull off into the truck stop because it was full. Instead, they pulled off onto the ramp in the main highway. Because it was on the highway, it wasn’t in the “Safe Zone,” and an accident resulted.

In a majority of these cases, lack of adequate, restful sleep is the cause.