If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one in a trucking accident caused by driver fatigue, we are here to help you recover every penny of compensation the law allows. Collisions involving fatigued drivers require an experienced truck accident law firm that knows the law. With a strong track record of winning cases, we’ve collected over $1 billion for our injured clients.
Contact us now at (800) 501-3011 and let’s begin your important claim.
Truckers & Companies Are Responsible for Accidents Caused by Fatigue
At Wilshire Law Firm, our truck accident lawyers hold truckers accountable to the rules to help keep our nation’s roads safer for everybody. We’ll fight to recover maximum damages for our clients. We have fought for victims of commercial trucking accidents for decades. We understand that most of these disasters could have been avoided if the drivers and trucking companies would abide by federal safe driving rules.
When a CDL trucker or trucking company breaks the rules and it results in an accident, including those caused by fatigued drivers who fall asleep at the wheel, these drivers and companies are often guilty of negligence.
Federal Hours of Service Rules for CDL Drivers
Driver fatigue causes 13 percent of trucking accidents or almost one in five. In most cases, the occupants of the other vehicle(s) involved suffer serious injuries or are killed. Property damage caused by trucking accidents costs us billions of dollars each year. In order to reduce trucking accidents and the damage they inflict, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has enacted strict regulations regarding how many hours truckers are allowed to drive without resting.
Truck driver hours may not exceed 11 hours of driving after 10 hours of rest. Drivers are supposed to take a 30-minute break after eight hours of continuous driving, and drivers who regularly drive the maximum hours allowed must take 34 hours off (a day and a half) after driving 60/70 hours in seven to eight days.[1]
Going by a 40-hour work week, the federal rules are lax. Truckers are allowed to work hard, but the FMCSA has set minimum standards to keep everybody safe. CDL drivers are required to keep logs of how many hours they drive and what hours they rest, and these logs are checked during roadside inspections. Yet, drivers regularly find ways around the hours of service rules and sometimes don’t fill out their logs.
A Truck Accident Law Firm Can Prove Negligence Caused Your Accident
In order to prove that a fatigued CDL driver working beyond the hour limit set by federal law caused your accident, you will need to investigate the trucker, the trucking company and the accident scene. Your best chance of proving negligence caused your accident is to hire a fatigued driver truck accident attorney with experience in these matters to investigate the facts and determine what happened and who is responsible.
If you rely on their insurance company to offer you a fair settlement amount, you may be disappointed. Insurance companies stay in business by paying out the least amount possible to settle claims. If they can, they will blame the accident on another driver in order to avoid paying millions of dollars to victims.
Wilshire truck accident lawyers have been helping victims of CDL driver fatigue for more than 15 years. We know how to find and evaluate the facts in order to demand a just compensation for your pain and suffering. We have recovered over $1 billion in damages for our clients.
Consult a Trucking Lawyer for Fatigued Driver Crashes Before Sharing Details
Avoid speaking to anyone but the police after the collision, aside from gathering contact information and insurance details from those involved. Do not talk to anyone investigating the collision for the trucking company or their insurance company.
To protect yourself legally, avoid the following:
- Talk to any insurance people from the other parties involved;
- Answering any specific questions about what caused the crash;
- Disclose what you were doing at the time of the crash
Instead of answering questions, you can direct people to ask your truck accident lawyer.
Call us now at (800) 501-3011 or fill out our online form to get your free consultation with an experienced truck accident attorney.
