Mississippi Tractor Trailer Wrecks, 18 Wheeler Wrecks – Sleep Deprivation
April 6th, 2011Tractor Trailer Wrecks, 18 Wheeler Wrecks – Sleep Deprivation
Trucking Wrecks Caused by Sleep Deprivation
by Jay Foster, Mississippi Truck Accident Attorney
Trucking wrecks or accidents cause a number of severe injuries and deaths each year. In fact, approximately 150,000 people are injured in trucking wrecks every year. In addition, there are over 5,000 Americans killed in trucking wrecks every year. Commerical trucks or tractor trailer rigs have more vehicle fatal wrecks than passenger vehicles. In fact, 18 wheelers are involved in fatal accidents twice as much as passenger cars.
The question is what are some of the causes of these wrecks involving 18 wheelers? One of the causes is sleep deprivation. Truck drivers are sometimes given impossible driving schedules by their employers. In an effort to meet these schedules, truck drivers will drive in excess of the number of hours they are allowed to drive per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. At our offices, we see fatigue as one of the major factors causing truck driving accidents in Mississippi.
At last count, over 20,000 Americans are injured due to sleep deprived truck drivers and over 750 Americans die due to sleep deprived truck drivers. We have agreed with and proposed some solutions to this problem in our previous suggestions. However, we have yet to see trucking companies agree with our proposals on a nationwide basis. We hope that for $850 trucking companies will agree that it is time to save lives.
