As an Atlanta serious injury lawyer representing victims maimed and killed in tractor trailer accidents throughout north Georgia, I read with great interest an online article reporting that the cause of the deadly tractor trailer crash in Oklahoma last year killing 10 people was caused by driver fatigue. According to the article, an astonishing 31% of all heavy truck accidents are due to driver fatigue.
What is more surprising is that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), first identified driver fatigue as a serious problem in heavy truck accidents over 20 years ago, and the Board's driver fatigue safety recommendations have gone unfulfilled for more than 10 years. One of the main recommendations made in 2001 was that heavy trucks be equipped with warning systems that provide visual and sound alerts to drivers when their trucks are with 350 feet of colliding with another vehicle. These systems cost between $1000 and $2000, but unfortunately, there is no requirement almost 10 years later that truck operators install the systems and few trucks have them today.
According to the article, this equipment could prevent 47,000 accidents and 96 deaths annually. Considering what it cost to legally defend, settle or try the number of personal injury and wrongful death claims and lawsuits caused by these numbers of accidents and deaths over 10 years, I believe it would have been considerably less expensive to equip every tractor trailer in America with these devices many years ago.
According to the article, in the Oklahoma crash, the 76 year old driver most likely had only 5 hours sleep before starting his work day just after 3:00 a.m. the day of the accident. He had been driving more than 10 hours at the time of the collision. The accident was preceded by a minor accident that had traffic stopped on the highway. Even though drivers cresting a hill in the direction of the stopped traffic had an unimpeded view of the traffic jam ahead, the truck driver drove his 40,000 pound truck at 70 mph smashing into the stopped vehicles. There was no evidence that the driver braked or took any other evasive action to avoid the accident. It is most likely the driver fell asleep at the worst possible time.
It is likely had the driver had a warning system described above, this accident may very well had not happened. In addition to providing sight and sound warnings, some of the more recent systems contain automatic brake systems to brake in these circumstances without any action by the driver. No doubt that may also have helped avoid the catastrophe.
How long is it going to be until the government requires these types of warning systems on all over the road trucking companies and drivers? We are not waiting. At our firm we are doing everything we can to get the attention of the trucking companies and/or their insurance companies to voluntarily put these systems in place by vigorously pursuing claims on behalf of individuals and their families for serious injuries and deaths caused by driver fatigue. If you would like to discuss your situation with us at no cost to you, please contact the firm. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss your rights and what your case might mean to you.
