One of the leading causes of commercial trucking accidents in Mississippi as well as throughout the country is truck drivers that are sleepy or fatigued. Although the trucking industry is heavily regulated to prevent trucking accidents involving fatigued drivers, these regulations primarily address the amount of time a driver is on the road and the length of rest periods. These regulations designed to prevent or reduce driver fatigue are called hours of service (HOS) rules. Although these regulations limited drivers driving shifts and mandate rest periods, federal trucking regulations do little to address the quality of off-duty rest time.
Many truck drivers suffer from sleep apnea. This disorder is a serious medical condition in which a person repeatedly stops and starts breathing while sleeping. It is often characterized by loud snoring interrupted by periods where the person seems to be struggling for breath. Sleep apnea involves breathing interruptions of 10-20 seconds that may occur hundreds of times while a person is sleeping. This disorder often prevents a person from getting the quality of sleep necessary to be alert and awake. Because the sleep cycle is constantly interrupted, a person will spend more time in light sleep and less time in deep sleep. For the many truck drivers with sleep apnea, this means less attentive and mentally sharp drivers behind the wheel of big-rigs on Mississippi roads.
While it may be tempting to dismiss the seriousness of the problem, a recent study conducted by researchers in British Columbia found that a driver suffering from sleep apnea faced double the risk of being involved in a commercial trucking accident. The study followed the accident patterns of drivers over a three year period and found that the group of drivers with sleep apnea faced a much higher risk of being involved in a tractor-trailer collision. This study confirms earlier studies that also found a higher truck accident risk associated with drivers who suffer from sleep apnea. Another interesting finding in the British Columbia study is that even very minor sleep apnea caused an increase in trucking collisions.
The Federal Motor Safety Administration (FMCSA) has proposed changes to existing guidelines regarding compliance with medical fitness standards concerning sleep apnea. It has been estimated that the number of drivers of tractor-trailers who suffer from sleep apnea may be as high as 30 percent. Although this is more than seven times the rate of sleep apnea in the general population, the disparity is predicated on the prevalence of the two leading risk factors of age and obesity amongst commercial truck drivers. Approximately half of all tractor-trailer drivers are 45 or older and almost half are obese.
Given the serious risk associated with driving an 80,000 pound tractor-trailer while fatigued, stricter regulations to prevent sleep apnea related accidents are a constructive step. HOS regulations can be an effective way to prevent driver from being involved in fatigued based accident related to lack of rest periods or too many consecutive hours on the road. New sleep apnea guidelines can help ensure that drivers that may have issues in terms of quality of sleep are identified. A tired driver behind the wheel of a forty ton fully loaded tractor-trailer is an extremely scary proposition. The Mississippi tractor-trailer accident lawyers of Barrett Law provide zealous advocacy to those injured in trucking accidents including those caused by driver fatigue. The commercial trucking attorneys at Barrett Law represent accident victims throughout the state so call us today at 662-834-2376 to see how we can help.