Driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of truck accidents in the United States. Due to this danger, federal rules govern how long a driver is allowed to be on the road in order to maintain safety. If a driver or a trucking company fails to adhere to hours of service requirements, serious injuries can occur. To ensure all rules and regulations are being followed, and safety precautions are being met, truck drivers are required to retain daily driver logbooks. Without these records, drivers and their employers can lose track of how many hours they have been driving, or how many breaks they have taken, and for how long. When a driver loses track, he or she may drive while being too tired to maneuver safely, or forget to make important maintenance inspections, leading to serious collisions.
Pursuing Damages from a Negligent Commercial Driver
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) sets federal regulations for people and entities operating trucks in interstate commerce. Under these rules, drivers are required to keep daily logs to keep track of their hours of service. Logbooks may be checked by inspectors authorized by the government to ensure requirements are being met. If a driver is found to have violated book regulations or hour requirements, punishment might include a fine or even the revocation of a commercial license.
The FMCSA requires drivers to complete logbook pages for each day in which they drive a commercial vehicle, as well as for the seven days before that, subject to some exceptions. These logs must detail a driver’s activities and the locations visited during a day. Drivers and their companies may have incentives to falsify logbooks, which is not only illegal but also dangerous because it encourages fatigued drivers to stay on the road. These violations may involve a driver who fails to take rest breaks after 11 or more hours, or operates a vehicle for over 60 or 70 hours in a workweek. Logbooks are meant to ensure truck drivers operate their vehicles safely, protecting their own health as well as the safety of others on the road. When these violations cause injuries, those responsible should be held accountable.
When drivers, either independently or with encouragement by their employer, willfully violate logbook rules, and accidents occur, they may be held liable for the injuries that result. Logbook violations can be used to show drivers fell below a standard of care when operating their vehicles. This duty of care is owed to everyone on the road, and it requires using the same degree of precaution that a reasonable person would use in the same situation when operating a motor vehicle. A reasonable person would be expected to comply with federal regulations such as logbook requirements, recognizing their importance to protecting public safety.
If a truck accident victim can show that a driver or company breached this duty, such as by driving while exhausted after incorrectly filling out a logbook, he or she next would need to establish that the breach directly caused the collision. It must have been a reasonably foreseeable result of the driver getting behind the wheel while overly fatigued. Damages that may be available to victims often include medical expenses, the costs of future treatment, lost income, property damage, and pain and suffering. In many situations, even if the trucking company did not act negligently, it may be held liable for the negligence of its employee through the theory of vicarious liability.
Establishing Liability for Violations of Hours of Service Requirements
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) governs trucks and other commercial vehicles that operate in interstate commerce. After finding that fatigue has contributed to a large number of accidents nationwide, the FMCSA set hours of service requirements for drivers that dictate how much time they are allowed to drive in any given day or week while working. Pursuant to these regulations, drivers are restricted to the following:
- Drivers may only drive for a maximum of 11 continuous hours while working a 14-hour day.
- After 11 hours, drivers must take a rest period of 10 hours before resuming driving activities.
- During a seven-day week, trucks may be on the road for between 60 and 77 hours, and between 70 and 88 hours for eight-day periods of time.
- After a driver, and his or her truck, has been off the road for two and a half consecutive days, a week begins at zero hours.
These rules came about after detailed research on the safe operations of commercial motor vehicles. The regulations aim to reduce the number of truck crash fatalities as well as ensure operational efficiency. However, some drivers, as well as their trucking company employers, fail to obey the law when it comes to hours of service requirements, since they are profit-driven and under pressure to meet strict delivery schedules.
Truck crashes can be caused by a multitude of reasons, but they are usually traceable to someone’s negligent actions. A failure to adhere to hours of service requirements may indicate negligence not only on the driver’s behalf but also sometimes on the behalf of a trucking company. Negligence is proven by showing a defendant breached a duty of reasonable care, causing injuries as well as damages. Adhering to hours of service requirements, as well as other laws, is part of adhering to the standard of care, since a reasonable driver or trucking company would make sure to comply with federal regulations.
As a result, an accident caused by a driver’s violation of a trucking regulation may be evidence of his or her negligence. The victim would need to show that he or she would not have been hurt had the driver complied with the regulation. Once negligence is established, accident victims can often receive compensation for past and future medical costs, loss of income, and lost earning capacity, as well as pain and suffering. In some instances, a trucking company also may be directly liable for causing a crash under theories such as negligent hiring, negligent entrustment, or negligent supervision.
Since they involve massive vehicles, truck accidents all too often prove fatal to people in the cars that are struck by trucks. When this happens, the family members of the victim may be able to bring a wrongful death action under Florida law against the driver, the company, and any other party that may have been responsible for their loss. These claims are particularly complex and must be filed within a shorter statute of limitations period, so it is especially important to avoid any delay in seeking legal representation if you are in this unfortunate situation.
Given the stress of making deliveries speedily and on time, companies and drivers may put others on the road at risk by sidestepping hours of service requirements.
