What Are The Consequences Of Truck Driver Fatigue Accidents In North Carolina?
Key Highlights:
- The result of truck driver fatigue accidents in North Carolina can be multi-faceted (catastrophic injuries, multi-party liability disputes), and the need for extensive evidence is essential.
- The federal hours of service violations NC standards also help establish liability in these cases, with its regulations that limit a driver’s ability to drive.
- Further, all trucking companies are required to have a minimum of $750,000 in liability insurance, while the minimum requirement for passenger cars is only $50,000.
- North Carolina is one of the few remaining states that uses a “contributory negligence” system; therefore, insurance companies use this to minimize or deny payments to you by attempting to obtain some portion of fault from you.
- Contact us at (800) 529-0804. We offer free consultations; you owe us an attorney’s fee only if you receive compensation.
What Are The Consequences Of Truck Driver Fatigue Accidents In North Carolina?
Injuries from truck accidents caused by driver fatigue usually result in catastrophic injuries, huge financial costs, long recovery periods, contested liability, and complex evidentiary disputes.
Some would argue that a tired driver can be extremely dangerous even if they have not actually fallen asleep, due to fatigue impacting their reaction time, their ability to make sound judgments, their ability to stay in the lane that they were driving in, and their overall ability to control the vehicle when it is loaded with material that exceeds its designed weight(s).
In seconds, one tired commercial motor vehicle operator can change the life of an entire family while traveling along I-40, I-85, I-95, I-77, US 74, or I-26.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that North Carolina had 4,992 non-fatal large truck crashes and 135 fatal large truck crashes within the same year, with an average of 150 fatal large truck or bus crashes every year resulting in a total of approximately 170 fatalities from such accidents; driver fatigue is routinely listed as one of the primary contributing factors in these types of accidents.
I am Robert Tatum with the Tatum & Atkinson Law Firm; our law firm is veteran-owned and has collectively over 65 years of experience. Since 2005, we have been helping North Carolina families learn about the impact that truck driver fatigue accidents North Carolina have upon their lives.
Why Is Truck Driver Fatigue So Dangerous?
Truck driver fatigue is more than just feeling drowsy. It can impair performance and lead to poor attention span, poor judgment, slow reaction time to road and traffic conditions, poor lane and speed control, and poor decision-making, all of which have very serious consequences when your vehicle weighs so much more than an average automobile.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drivers who do not get enough sleep in order to safely drive are at high risk for being involved in a crash. Long driving shifts and driving during periods of the day/night when they are normally expected to be sleeping also put drivers at risk. This is why drivers are at a high risk of truck driver drowsiness crashes North Carolina.
An example of how a drowsy driver would have caused an accident is the driver missing brake lights ahead, drifting into another lane, failing to stop for traffic that has stopped, misjudging a curve in the road, or simply deciding to keep driving, overdue for a delivery.
A truck accident caused by driver fatigue can cause a crash during lane departures, rear-end impact, vehicle rollover, jackknife, sideswipe, underride accident, or run off the road. On a dark stretch of highway in Greensboro, Raleigh, Charlotte, Wilmington, or Asheville, any of those crash types can result in fatalities.
5 Common Signs of Fatigue Play a Role
The 5 most common signs of a fatigued driver include the following:
- deliberately swerving
- gradual lane drift (rather than instant lane drift)
- crash occurring in a time period of nighttime or following an extended shift
- driver providing vague answers to questions about his/her driving schedule
- And driver provides written log information that does not correspond to the time between fuel receipts, paying tolls, time recorded on GPRS, and time recorded on delivery.
What Injuries Can Fatigued Truck Driver Accidents NC, Cause?
The impact of a collision between large vehicles and smaller vehicles can be catastrophic because of the way in which large vehicles can overpower smaller vehicles. A large commercial vehicle could literally crush a smaller vehicle, push that vehicle into the path of oncoming traffic, or cause a chain reaction involving several vehicles in multiple lines of traffic.
There are many different types of injuries associated with North Carolina trucking accident injuries, including
- traumatic brain injury
- damage to the spinal cord
- broken bones
- bleeding internally
- damage to internal organs
- neck and back injuries
- severe thermal burns
- amputations
- deep cuts, and
- long-lasting psychological trauma and suffering.
Some accident victims will walk away from the wreckage of their accident and be shaken by the experience. Others will spend months trying to re-learn how to walk, work, rest, or think normally following their accidents. While the actual wreck will occur in a matter of seconds, the actual recovery from the wreckage will require an extended amount of time.
Why Long-Haul Routes Through North Carolina Increase Risk
The state of North Carolina is a connection point for a plethora of major freight-related corridors, ports, warehouses, distribution centers, factories, and interstates, all of which come through or go to routes in the state.
A truck rider could race from their location to a terminal and transportation business on the outskirts of Charlotte. The shipment will be headed for the Port of Wilmington. A truck is cutting through the triangle late at night to evade rush hour traffic, as the commercial volume through the RTP/I-40 corridor is experiencing growth with the increase in population in Wake County.
Commercial truck fatigue accidents NC are caused by a fatigued driver who has crashed into another vehicle and has typically made many bad decisions (the driver, the dispatch at the transportation company, and the company that does not track driver logbook hours all share responsibility for a truck driver’s ability to operate the vehicle safely).
The push for drivers to stay longer than allowed per government regulation,
- Unrealistic timelines imposed by dispatchers
- Companies that do not monitor a truck’s hours of operation
- And a truck’s driver can turn in a logbook that has too many blank hours recorded also are responsible.
How Do Federal Hours of Service Rules Matter?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulates drivers and provides regulations concerning maximum drive time and maximum on-duty time, as well as break periods between driving and working, in order to keep truck drivers alert and awake while driving. According to federal regulations (49 CFR §395.3), property-carrying trucks are limited to a maximum of 11 driving hours out of a maximum of 14 hours of on-duty time, subject to taking required breaks before driving again.
In the event that a driver is found to be in federal hours of service violations, NC of service violations prior to being involved in an accident (like the North Carolina accident), the legal question becomes simple:
- was the driver,
- or the dispatcher,
- driving beyond the hours of service rules, which were designed specifically to prevent accidents like yours
Who May Be Responsible After A Fatigue-Related Truck Crash?
There are also instances where other entities could be responsible for the driver’s violations of working hours. Trucking companies could have liability if they encouraged unsafe driving schedules, did not pay attention to log violations, or did not properly train the driver on how to comply with the HOS rules, or if there is evidence that the trucking company pressured the driver to deliver their freight in an unreasonable amount of time.
Depending upon what occurred during the event that resulted in your accident, other entities such as freight brokers, shippers, maintenance providers, loading companies, and other drivers could be responsible for causing you to be in an accident.
In the case of fatigue-related semi-truck accidents North Carolina, the evidence trail is critical to your case since it could possibly lead to multiple commercial investigations as opposed to a simple “fender bender” claim.
Why Company Records Matter
Many records can provide evidence of whether or not the driver was adequately rested before the collision occurred.
These records could include:
- The driver logs
- Electronic logging device records
- Dispatch messages
- Delivery schedules
- GPS data
- Fuel receipts
- Toll records
- Inspection reports, and
- Phone records
In cases of fatigue, the evidence is often reflected in the driving records. The logs, dispatches, GPS data, and metropolitan pressures clearly demonstrate whether the accident was just an accident or a result of unsafe decisions.
Why Commercial Truck Insurance Limits Change Everything
This is one of the most important things that many victims of truck accidents are not told, and therefore largely defines the value of their claim for damages against a truck driver or truck company.
Truck drivers must have superior liability coverage; the federal law only requires them to carry a minimum of $750,000 in liability insurance ($1 million to $5 million if they are hauling hazardous materials), while most other states (including North Carolina) require only $50,000 for passenger vehicles.
The significant difference in the amount of coverage exists because commercial truck accidents typically cause serious bodily harm and injury to others, and property damage to others.
This means the insurance company has a large amount to lose if they have to pay the claim, and as a result, they have more motivation to try to deny your claim or to argue who caused the accident and to reduce the amount they will pay you for your damages before they reach the limit of the insurance policy.
How Do Insurance Companies Defend These Claims?
Truck insurance companies work quickly and aggressively with a variety of arguments to deflect liability (truck driver exhaustion accident claims NC), including claiming the following:
- that the driver did not have enough sleep to be legally considered drowsy
- that the weather was a factor
- that another vehicle caused or contributed to the collision
- that the design of the roadway was deficient; and
- that the injured person caused or contributed to the injury or damages occurring from the collision with the drowsy truck driver.
The legality and extent of contributory negligence laws in North Carolina require that any amount of fault that can be attributed to an injured person could affect their right to recover from the at-fault party. Therefore, obtaining and utilizing credible, thoroughly supported records of the drowsy driving truck crashes NC are critical in supporting your case.
What Compensation May Be Available?
A tired truck driver collision North Carolina can leave an individual and their family with medical expenses, loss of earnings, pain and suffering, permanent injury/disability, as well as loss of or damage to the vehicle involved, and an ongoing fear of driving again.
Damage Type |
What It May Include |
| Medical care | Emergency treatment, surgery, hospital stays, therapy |
| Future care | Rehabilitation, injections, mobility devices, home care |
| Lost income | Missed work, reduced hours, lost earning ability |
| Pain and suffering | Physical pain, sleep trouble, emotional distress |
| Property damage | Vehicle repair, total loss, towing, rental costs |
| Long-term harm | Disability, scarring, brain injury, spinal injury |
In a personal injury claim arising from the North Carolina collision with a drowsy truck driver, determining the damages incurred as a result of the collision should include both economic and non-economic damages. Further, due to the high policy limits generally available for commercial motor vehicle accidents, it is especially important to properly quantify the present and future value of damages.
What Evidence Helps Prove Truck Driver Fatigue?
Evidence can quickly vanish; therefore, trucking firms maintain electronic records for various periods; however, not every record will be available for all time, so prompt retention is essential.
Useful Proof Includes
- ELD Data – Electronic Logging Devices was “turned on” and provides a record of Hours Driven and Location, including when “turned off.”
- Driver’s Logs and Shipper/Receiver Dispatch Messages
- GPS Device Records – Record of Travel
- Fuel Receipts
- Tolls and Receipts
- Bills of Lading
- Delivery Deadlines
- Inspection Reports
- Truck Camera Footage
- Police Accident Reports
- Witness Testimonies
- Medical Records
- Crash Reconstruction
- Road Condition
- Phone Records
- Driver Sleep Records
- Company Safety Policies
The above evidence can show if fatigue affected a driver, if the driver was pressured by the company, or if the driver violated federal safety regulations.
Why Medical Care Matters After a Fatigue-Related Truck Crash
Seek medical attention immediately after being involved in a truck accident, especially if feeling fine. Symptoms may arise later (such as neck injury, brain injury, or soft tissue damage) because of the addition of adrenaline, masking any discomfort at the time of the accident.
You will rely on medical documentation, which will demonstrate the relationship between your injuries and the crash, in case your insurance company disputes that the injury is due to the crash. Waiting a period of time, hoping the pain will subside, would be one of the most common and financially damaging mistakes made after a truck accident.
When Should You Contact A North Carolina Truck Accident Lawyer?
If you’ve been hit by a commercial truck and either fatigue contributed to the accident, you’ve sustained serious injury, or the trucking company’s insurance company is already contacting you, consider contacting a lawyer.
An experienced litigation attorney will gather and preserve evidence, determine whether driver hours of service are being followed properly, identify all parties who may be liable for the crash, review the trucking company’s insurance coverage at all levels of applicable policies, and protect your claim until evidence is no longer available.
Talk To Tatum & Atkinson Law Firm About Truck Driver Fatigue Accidents In North Carolina
If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to a truck driver whose fatigue caused an accident in North Carolina, then the ramifications of that crash do not stop at the collision itself. They also include… serious injuries, long-term medical costs, missed time from work, contested liability, and evidence disputes with trucking companies and their insurance carriers.
Please call (800) 529-0804 for a free consultation so that we may discuss your case. Preservation of the evidence in your case will only become stronger once we can preserve the records therein as indicated.
FAQs: What Are The Consequences Of Truck Driver Fatigue Accidents In North Carolina
Can truck driver fatigue be a factor even if the driver did not fall asleep?
Fatigue reduces the speed of response, lessens your ability to pay attention, increases your likelihood of drifting out of your lane, and even when you are not fully asleep, these four effects together may result in a bad accident.
Are fatigue-related truck accidents more common at certain times?
Late at night, early in the morning, working through long shifts (i.e., 12 hours), and during the natural times during the day when your body is at its lowest will all increase your risk for drowsy driving.
Can weather make a truck driver’s fatigue more dangerous?
These types of weather conditions (rain, fog, dark, etc) will each also make the risks of delays in reactions due to fatigue even greater.
Do trucking companies monitor driver fatigue?
They have to; either way, the records should indicate whether any attempt was made to address the risk of fatigue.
Are first-time drivers more vulnerable to fatigue crashes?
They are likely to be. The new driver may need additional time to adjust to working long shifts and working at night, and then he/she may not know how to recognise their own signs of fatigue.
