Dangerous Mississippi Underrun Trucking Accidents Can Cause Catastrophic Injury

While the enormous mass of a commercial truck makes any collision involving a big-rig potentially fatal, underrun trucking accidents (also called “underride accidents”) are particularly dangerous.  The reason these collision are so dangerous is because they generally result in severe intrusion into the passenger compartment of the car either literally tearing the roof off the vehicle or crushing the roof.  Many do not realize that these accidents occur fairly frequently with thousands of fatalities from rear underrun trucking collisions occurring annually and another five hundred fatalities each year caused by side underrun trucking accidents.  At Barrett Law, we understand the enormous risk of catastrophic injuries and wrongful death in trucking underrun crashes.

In a Mississippi underrun trucking accident, a passenger car is unable to stop and proceeds to drive beneath the undercarriage of the commercial truck.  The reason these accidents occur is because of the difference in height between the undercarriage area of a passenger car and a commercial truck.  The undercarriage area of a commercial truck is 45 inches while it is only 30 inches for a typical passenger vehicle.  The gap formed by the difference in the relative height of the undercarriage of each vehicle creates a space where a passenger vehicle can travel under a tractor-trailer.  This typically results in the roof of the passenger car being torn off the vehicle or being crushed into the passenger compartment.  Either way, these trucking accidents generally result in horrific injuries, including decapitation, brain injuries, damaged spinal cords and far too frequently fatalities.  Roof crush injuries are common in this type of collision.

While there have been steps take to reduce the risk of undercarriage accidents, they continue to claim thousands of lives each year.  Although all commercial trucks are required to have yellow reflective tape on the back of the trailer, sometimes this tape is not present or the vehicle is so dirty and grimy that the tape cannot be easily seen.  Similarly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) made installation of underrun guards on commercial trucks mandatory in 1996.  However, the requirement applies only to new commercial trucks, and many commercial carriers have not bothered to retrofit trucks that were not equipped with the guards.  A recent study of the underrun guards also revealed that many are not built strong enough to offer effective protection in an underrun trucking accident.  Additionally, side underguards are not required by federal regulations, and commercial carriers generally have not taken the initiative to install them absent a federal mandate.

Mississippi commercial underrun trucking accidents often result in permanent debilitating injuries or the loss of a loved one.  If you suffer injury or lose someone you love in a Mississippi commercial trucking accident, our experienced Mississippi trucking accident attorneys carefully investigate our clients trucking accidents cases and fight aggressively to seek the best possible outcome for our clients.  At Barrett Law, our experienced Mississippi personal injury lawyers represent injury victims throughout Mississippi.  Our law firm has roots that reach back 75 years so contact us today for your free initial consultation at (662) 834-2376 to see how we can help.

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Serious Trucking Accident Illuminates Issues Regarding Pre-Employment Screening of Truck Drivers

The danger posed by the more than three million tractor-trailers that travel U.S. roadways is clearly evidenced by the half a million tractor-trailer collisions that occur in the U.S. each year.  Someone is injured or dies in a tractor-trailer accident every sixteen minutes.  There are many causes for tractor-trailer accidents in Mississippi, including fatigued drivers, improperly maintained rigs and overloaded commercial trucks.  One of the most preventable causes of tractor-trailer collisions in Mississippi is the failure to conduct proper employment pre-screening prior to hiring a prospective truck driver.

A trucking accident lawsuit out of Atlanta poses a good example of the importance of pre-employment screening by a trucking company.  A tractor-trailer driver ran a red light at an intersection and collided with two vehicles in the intersection.  One of the vehicle occupants had been in excellent health prior to the intersection truck accident.  The company probably would not have engaged the truck driver had it conducted an adequate pre-employment screening or reviewed the information received sufficiently.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations require trucking companies to conduct a pre-employment background check before hiring a new truck driver.  The trucking company is required to obtain a driving and employment history for the driver for the three prior years.  The driver must comply with Department of Transportation (DOT) drug testing that applies to those with commercial drivers’ licenses.  An employer also must obtain a drug and alcohol violation history for the preceding three years as well as conduct a pre-employment drug test.

It is unclear whether the trucking company in the Georgia case conducted any pre-employment screening let alone one that complied with FMCSA regulations.  The employer destroyed all documents relating to the truck drivers employment application prior to filing a court response to the lawsuit.  This is a common practice for trucking companies in tractor-trailer litigation.  This is why it is important that your trucking accident lawyer send a spoliation letter to the trucking company as soon as practical so that critical evidence is not destroyed by the trucking company.  If the trucking company proceeds to destroy the evidence despite the spoliation letter, the court can impose monetary sanctions or take more extreme measures like in this case and instruct the jury to presume the evidence would have been damaging to the trucking company.

In this case, the truck driver had a long list of red flags that should have alerted the trucking company that it was not safe to put him behind the wheel of one of its big-rigs.  The truck driver had caused two prior rear end collisions while driving a big-rig during the three year look back period as well as two traffic citations for improper following distance associated with those trucking collisions.  The driver has also had his CDL suspended for sixty days and received a traffic citation for speeding less than two months prior to being hired by the defendant.

If you or a loved one is involved in a Mississippi trucking accident, it is important to work with an experienced Mississippi trucking accident law firm that can move quickly to preserve critical evidence and analyze a driver’s employment file to identify potential issues regarding the driver’s competence when hired or potential driving violations or accidents by the driver while working for the driver’s current employer.

If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one dies in a Mississippi trucking accident caused by inadequate pre-employment screening of a truck driver, you or your loved one may have a right to seek compensation for any injuries or other loss.  The experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer accident attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing effective representation to person injury victims for over 75 years. We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

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Overloaded Tractor-Trailers on Mississippi Roadways

There are certain types of Mississippi motor vehicle accidents that pose exceptional risks to other drivers and passengers traveling our roadways.  Trucking companies generally try to send trucks on runs with the maximum possible load because fewer trips mean greater trucking company profit.  A collision with a fully loaded tractor-trailer in Mississippi is the equivalent of being in a collision with 26 passenger vehicles stacked on top of each other.  It is hardly surprising that collisions between big-rig trucks and passenger vehicles tend to result in catastrophic injuries and wrongful death for passenger vehicle occupants.

Although tractor-trailers are limited to 80,000 lbs. when fully loaded, some drivers and trucking companies push the limits and overload tractor-trailers.  Overloaded tractor-trailers increase the dangers posed by commercial trucks for several reasons:

  • Excessive loads can make tractor-trailers less responsive when steering
  • Collapse of bridges or overpasses
  • Overloaded commercial trucks need more distance to stop
  • Increased risk of blowouts because of the excessive weight
  • Runaway trucks involving brake failure
  • Greater mass in a collision typically will result in greater force in the collision

A study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) revealed that overloaded trucks are more likely to rollover or jackknife which can cause horrific trucking accidents involving multiple vehicles that pile up.  Overloaded trucks may also cause accidents when cargo falls off the vehicle into the roadway creating a crash hazard, or it falls directly on another vehicle.

Trucking companies are responsible for ensuring that truck loads comply with maximum weight requirements and that the load is distributed and secured properly.  When tractor-trailers are overloaded, the injuries suffered in a collision with a passenger vehicle may result in permanent devastating injuries including closed head injuries, damage to the spinal cord, paralysis, dismemberment or loss of limbs and other life-altering injuries.

Commercial trucks that exceed maximum weight limits may require the distance of a full football field to stop if the truck is traveling at 55 mph.  This means that by the time a truck driver can stop a big-rig it may have collided with many vehicles or obstacles in its path.  When a tractor-trailer collides with a passenger car, it is the occupants of the commercial truck that suffers injury or wrongful death almost 100 percent of the time.  The experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer accident attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing effective representation to Mississippi tractor-trailer victims for over 75 years.  We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

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The Role of Brake Failure in Causing Mississippi Trucking Accidents

Trucking accidents in Mississippi can be extremely dangerous and result in devastating life-altering injuries and all too often fatalities.  While there are many causes of trucking collisions involving these enormous forty ton motor vehicles, some trucking accidents are caused by the failure to conduct required vehicle inspections and conduct routine maintenance. Because of the size and weight of these massive vehicles, issues like brake maintenance are critical to the safety of those with whom tractor-trailers share the road.  Although tractor-trailers are supposed to be inspected daily and these inspections are supposed to be documented, these inspections may not be conducted or routine maintenance may be ignored.  These shortcuts can result in nightmarish scenes of 80,000 pound fully loaded motor vehicles racing down the roadway out-of-control.

Brake failure is a significant cause of Mississippi trucking accidents with the Department of Transportation (DOT) indicating that brake issues account for nearly thirty percent of all Mississippi tractor-trailer accidents.  Trucking accidents that involve brake issues can be complicated because a variety of entities may be responsible for the brake failure including the truck driver, the truck maintenance company, the brake manufacturer or even the company that loaded the truck.  A common strategy employed by insurance companies when defending against trucking accidents claims caused by brake failure is to attempt to shift blame to another party for the failure of the brakes.  At Barrett Law, our experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer accident attorneys carefully investigate trucking accidents so that we can identify all potentially responsible parties.

Federal regulations impose safety standards regarding the functioning of tractor-trailer braking systems. These regulations require among other things that trucks be able to provide a certain brake resistance based on the percentage of the truck’s weight. These regulations also require that tractor-trailers conform to automatic brake adjustment system standards and that they be able to go from 20 mph to a complete stop at a specific rate based on the size of the vehicle. When tractor-trailer brakes do not meet these standards, Mississippi trucking accident victims may have a right to pursue a product liability claim against the brake manufacturer.

Sometimes brake failure is not related to defects in the brakes themselves but rather failure to perform required inspections and maintenance. When a Mississippi trucking accident is caused by brakes that have not been properly maintained, the trucking company, the truck driver, a truck leasing company or other parties involved in maintaining the brakes may be liable for your injuries. Although truck drivers are supposed to maintain records regarding brake safety inspections and maintenance, sometimes these records are not properly maintained or the inspection and maintenance is not performed as required.

Our experienced Mississippi accident attorneys carefully investigate driver logbooks and other tractor-trailer maintenance records to uncover evidence of inadequate brake maintenance.  Our experienced Mississippi trucking accident attorneys also frequently work closely with trucking industry experts to help develop the strongest liability claim on behalf of our trucking accident clients.  The experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer accident attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing aggressive representation to Mississippi trucking accident victims for over 75 years.  We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Mississippi Trucking Accidents

Tractor-trailer or commercial trucking accidents are unique amongst types of Mississippi motor vehicle accidents for both the degree of carnage caused by a trucking collision and the complexity involved in trucking accident claims.  Many victims of Mississippi trucking accidents presume that although tractor-trailers are large vehicles handling trucking collision claims are more or less akin to any other motor vehicle claim.  This is not only a mistaken assumption, but one that can adversely impact one’s trucking accident claim.  The choice of a Mississippi trucking accident lawyer is not a decision to be taken lightly particularly because these collisions often result in debilitating life-altering injuries.

Because tractor-trailer accident claims are far more complex than those involving other motor vehicles, it is important to carefully screen your Mississippi trucking accident attorney to make sure that he or she has the experience, expertise and knowledge to successfully handle your trucking accident case.  An ideal way to learn about your rights and options if you are involved in a tractor-trailer accident is to speak to one of the experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer attorneys at Barrett Law.  Because we receive many questions about trucking accidents, we have provided some answers to common questions below.

Are Mississippi trucking accidents really more dangerous than other types of motor vehicle accidents?

Absolutely!  A fully loaded tractor-trailer combination can weigh forty times more than the typical passenger vehicle.  The increased weight associated with tractor-trailers mean that the force of impact in a collision is likely to be far more intense.  Tractor-trailer accidents account for almost thirteen percent of all motor vehicle accident fatalities.  The danger to those who share the roads with tractor-trailers is reflected by the fact that 98 percent of the time the person who dies in a fatal trucking collision is an occupant of the other vehicle.

What are the most common causes of tractor-trailers accidents?

There are many causes of trucking accidents in Mississippi but driver error is the most common factor.  When trucking companies fail to conduct proper screening when hiring a driver or do not provide adequate training or supervision of commercial drivers, the risk of serious trucking collisions is extremely high.  Trucking accidents may also be caused by poorly maintained trucks, trucks with defective components or roads that are not properly designed or maintained.  Some common causes trucking accidents in Mississippi include the following:

  • Fatigued drivers who violate Hours of Service (HOS) rules
  • Drug or alcohol impaired truck drivers
  • Truck drivers who travel at an unsafe speed
  • Failure of truck drivers to properly check “no zones” (i.e. large blind spots on tractor-trailers)
  • Lack of inspections and maintenance

What laws govern the operation of tractor-trailers?

While commercial truck drivers are subject to the Mississippi Rules of the Road that govern drivers of other motor vehicles, they are also required to obtain a special commercial license and must comply with an extensive matrix of federal and state regulations.  The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) promulgates regulations designed to promote safety and prevent trucking accidents at the federal level.  These regulations impact a wide range of safety issues including but not limited to driver fatigue, screening of potential hires, size and weight limits, drug and alcohol testing and a wide range of other topics.  The experienced trucking accident lawyers at Barrett Law are well versed in these regulations.  Violations of these regulations often provide a basis for imposing liability on a commercial driver or trucking company.

Is the process of negotiating or litigating a trucking accident claim similar to other types of motor vehicle accidents?

Trucking accident claims involve unique issues that are not typically part of other motor vehicle accident claims.  Critical evidence including log books that track issues like driver fatigue, onboard digital recorders and other evidence may be destroyed or altered so prompt action is necessary to preserve such evidence.  Further, trucking companies often characterize a commercial driver as an “independent contractor” to avoid minimize liability and distance the company from a driver who causes a collision.  Our tractor-trailer accident lawyers are familiar with such trucking industry practices and work diligently to protect important evidence and unveil the reality behind a purported independent contractor relationship.

While this information may answer some of your questions, we invite you to contact us if you need additional information.  Our experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer attorneys can evaluate your claim and provide some preliminary information about your rights and options.  The experienced Mississippi tractor-trailer accident attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing aggressive representation to trucking accident victims for over 75 years.  We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

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Feds Consider Guidelines to Reduce Sleep Apnea as a Cause of Fatigue Based Trucking Accidents

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.

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How Tired Truck Drivers Can Endanger Lives

In a motor vehicle accident between a massive 18-wheeler and a passenger car, it’s a sure bet the occupants of the passenger vehicle will come out on the losing end. A 5,000 pound passenger vehicle is just no match for a 50,000 to 80,000 pound truck. There are around 400,000 big rig accidents each year in the United States, and of these, there are over four thousand fatalities and close to 100,000 serious injuries. While big rigs are a necessary component of our lives, as they transport goods from one location to another around the clock, there is a large problem with truck drivers who continue to drive when they are exhausted and sleep-deprived.

Fatigue as a Major Contributor to Accidents

Many organizations believe that fatigue among truck drivers is responsible for as many as forty percent of all fatal truck crashes. When a truck driver nods off, they often swerve into another lane or run off the road, swiping other smaller vehicles in the process. Exhausted drivers are also much more likely to make serious errors in judgment such as improper braking, misjudging critical distances, turning too sharply or driving beyond a safe speed limit. Driving on busy freeways requires constant attention and alertness, and tired truck drivers are simply not able to give the cars around them the attention they deserve.

Why Truckers Drive When Fatigued

The trucking business is set up in such a way that unless the driver is on the road, nobody—including the driver—is making any money. The more deliveries a truck driver makes, the higher profits the trucking company will realize. When the livelihood of the trucker and his family depend on driving “just a few more” miles, you are going to see many more tired truckers, thus many more accidents. Truckers are under a tremendous amount of pressure to make their deliveries on time, and because truckers are paid by the mile rather than by the hour, there is little incentive to pull off the road and get some rest. Even in the face of new federal regulations, truckers—with the full blessing of the company they drive for—often keep two sets of log books so they can get more hours of driving time in.

Federal Regulations

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has made a concerted effort to prevent truck drivers from driving while fatigued by setting daily and weekly limits on the amount of time the trucker can be on the road. Currently truck drivers may not drive more than eleven hours in a row within a fourteen hour time period, which must then be followed by ten consecutive hours off duty.

Within any twenty-four hour period, a truck driver cannot drive more than fourteen hours, and within seven consecutive days, they are not allowed to spend more than sixty hours total driving and on-duty. Truckers must spend at least thirty four hours off-duty prior to beginning the next seven or eight day consecutive period of driving. Several groups have attempted to get the eleven hour rule changed on the grounds that they threaten the safety of the truck drivers and the drivers who share the road. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety believes that the risk of being involved in a crash doubles when the driver has been driving longer than eight to ten hours at a stretch.

When to Consult an Attorney

If you’ve been the victim of an accident caused by a tired truck driver, it’s imperative that you hire an experienced personal injury attorney immediately. It is very difficult to battle a huge trucking company whose only goal is to stop you from getting the compensation you need and deserve to cover your injuries and damages. An aggressive attorney who is familiar with the tactics used by the trucking companies and the insurance companies will be your very best advocate in a fair settlement.

Call and speak with an experienced Mississippi personal injury attorney from Barrett Law, PLLC.  Be sure to visit our web blog for more helpful information about your case or call us for a free consultation to answer your important questions.

The attorneys at Barrett Law, PLLC serve people throughout Mississippi including: North Mississippi, Jackson, Hattiesburg, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

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Fraudulent Medical Exams for Truckers as a Cause of Accidents in Mississippi

Although Federal law requires that all commercial truck drivers undergo a medical exam every two years, what the law does not specify is what type of medical professional may administer the exam. At this point, a chiropractor or nurse practitioner can sign off on the medical exam of a truck driver, meaning this is a considerable loophole which can allow truck drivers with physical impairments to remain on the road. A 2008 congressional investigation showed that as many as one out of three medical certificates issued to truck drivers cannot be verified.

These certificates were either issued by doctors who don’t exist, or were issued by a doctor who later denies ever examining the truck driver, meaning the certificate was fraudulently issued. Because certain governmental websites supply blank medical certificates, drivers may fill out the certificate themselves, forging the signature with a doctor’s name they’ve found in the phone book, and a medical license number they’ve looked up on the Internet.

No Authentication for Medical Certificates

Due to the fact that it rarely becomes necessary to authenticate a medical certificate, there are many drivers on the highways today with a forged medical certificate or one from a marginal medical professional with few medical credentials. The bottom line is there are no training requirements for the issuance of medical certificates for interstate commercial truck drivers, and only minimal standards for what medical issues must be examined. If a trucker is denied by one doctor, he can try another until he finds one who will sign off on his medical certificate.

No Electronic Database for Medical Certificates

Although there are databases for nearly everything these days, there currently exists no electronic database for the medical certificates of truck drivers. When a truck driver is stopped and an officer requests the medical certificate, they either don’t have the time to call the doctor and verify the signature, or if they do call, the doctor is prevented from revealing any medical issues regarding the truck driver because of medical privacy laws. The fine for driving a commercial truck without benefit of a medical certificate is negligible, meaning truck drivers will keep on driving regardless of whether or not they have a valid, properly issued medical certificate which gives them a clean bill of health.

Truck Drivers Who Drive Under Medically Impaired Conditions

A final finding of the congressional investigation was that over half a million truck drivers are currently receiving full medical disability benefits—a staggering statistic which tells you that there are a significant number of medically unfit truck drivers covering hundreds of miles each day on our nation’s highways. Hundreds of deaths occur each and every year when a medically unfit truck driver either falls asleep from exhaustion or suffers a stroke, or heart attack behind the wheel. Over five percent of commercial truck drivers have been diagnosed with sleep apnea, while as many as fifteen percent routinely get less than five hours of sleep per night.

There are over 16 million trucks on the road in the United States, and for every 100 million of miles these trucks drive on the nation’s highways, there are three deaths and over sixty injuries caused strictly by eighteen-wheelers. There is no contest between an 80,000 pound truck and a 5,000-8,000 pound passenger vehicle in the event of an auto crash, and although the truck drivers are generally unhurt in an accident, the people in the passenger vehicle fare less well. If you’ve been injured in an accident, which was the result of, a trucker who was driving impaired, driving under a falsified medical certificate, or simply driving in a negligent or reckless manner, you must contact an experienced Mississippi truck accident attorney immediately who is knowledgeable about trucking accidents specifically. You need time to heal, so let a qualified attorney handle the details of your claim while you try to regain your life.  Call us today for a free consultation.

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Hours of Service Rules Not Sufficient to Prevent Fatigue Based Trucking Accidents

Few motor vehicle accidents in Mississippi result in the kind of carnage that is a common result of commercial trucking accidents.  The trucking industry is subject to both federal and state regulations.  One of the most significant factors in commercial trucking accidents is driver fatigue.  Commercial truck drivers are under pressure to drive longer and take fewer breaks both to increase their pay and increase trucking company profits.  While there are strict rules that govern the hours that truck drivers spend on the road and the amount of frequency and duration of rest periods, these formal limits may be insufficient to prevent fatigue based trucking accidents.

Approximately 50 percent of all commercial trucking accidents are caused by driver fatigue according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).  Although the trucking industry is expected to comply with hours of service (HOS) rules that limit the amount of time drivers are on the road without breaks and dictate break periods before driving shifts, these rules frequently are violated.  Commercial truck drivers keep logbooks that are supposed to provide a record of compliance with HOS rules.  However, these logbooks are routinely altered.

While some tractor-trailers have black box data recorders that can be used to verify the accuracy of the logbook, these data recorders are not present in all vehicles.  There is also no requirement that the data be preserved following a commercial trucking accident.  This makes it imperative to contact an experienced Mississippi trucking accident lawyer promptly following a trucking accident who will take steps to prevent destruction of the data on the black box data recorder.

The HOS rules are also somewhat out of touch with the reality of driver fatigue issues.  Drivers HOS rules permit drivers to be on the road for 11 hours at a time.  Smartmotorist.com reports that driver fatigue can set in with no more than eighty minutes on the road without a break.  A truck driver may not be on the road longer than 11 hours without a 10 hour rest period afterwards.  The rules do not require breaks during a long 10 hour period on the road which can result in fatigue based accidents.

Long periods without breaks can result in fatigue which may cause a deterioration in critical driving skills including decision making, concentration, visual sharpness, slow reaction times and other impaired driving ability.  The mere fact that a driver complies with HOS rules does not mean that a Mississippi commercial truck driver is not fatigued.  A driver may still be negligent because the driver does not get sufficient sleep or take breaks while on a driving shift.  Truck drivers frequently feel pressure imposed by unrealistic schedules imposed by trucking companies to drive despite feeling fatigued.  This can have catastrophic results.

At Barrett Law, we have been representing those injured in commercial trucking accidents throughout Mississippi.  We have deep roots as a Mississippi personal injury law firm and have been representing those injured in serious motor vehicle accidents for over 75 years.  Our commercial trucking accident lawyers offer a free initial case evaluation so we invite you to call us at 662-834-2376.

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Federal Regulators to Eliminate Major Loophole in Drug Testing of Tractor-Trailer Drivers

Although federal regulations have mandated drug testing for truck drivers operating tractor-trailers for well over a decade, some rather major loopholes have allowed those who would otherwise be disqualified from driving on Mississippi highways to remain on the road.  New proposed legislation called the Safe Roads Act may eliminate many of the loopholes that permit commercial drivers to avoid drug and alcohol testing requirements.  Recent studies have shown that almost 70,000 commercial truck drivers currently operating tractor-trailers have tested positive for drugs.  Despite the issue of liability, commercial trucking companies hire these potential unsafe drivers for a variety of reasons including:

  • Many trucking companies fail to conduct adequate background checks that might reveal such tests.
  • Those truck drivers that are independent contractors continue to drive despite positive drug tests.
  • Commercial truck drivers do not disclose prior positive drug tests to potential or current employers.
  • Self-employed drivers who are negligent do not voluntarily remove themselves from service.

The new legislation is aimed at keeping commercial truck drivers who have tested positive for drug use off the road by employing a more comprehensive reporting and enforcement system.  The legislation contemplates the development of a comprehensive database that will compile information regarding drug test results including refusal to submit to such drug testing.  The law would impose an affirmative duty on employers and medical review officers to report positive tests for alcohol and drugs to the national database.

Commercial carriers will be required to check the database as part of their background check during the hiring process for any commercial truck drivers.  To ensure that employers obtain current data, tractor-trailer drivers will be required to provide tests at least every three years.

While drug and alcohol use by drivers of tractor-trailers is in decline, the problem still persists.  Drug use by commercial truck drivers appears to have outpaced alcohol use as a potential danger to other motorists.  A report by the Insurance Institute for Traffic Safety (IITS) of interstate commercial truck drivers found that 15 percent of all truck drivers tested positive for marijuana, 12 percent tested positive for non-prescription stimulants, 5 percent tested positive for prescription stimulants, 2 percent tested positive for cocaine and less than 1% had alcohol tested positive for alcohol.  Alcohol use by truck drivers was once a very serious problem but is now only a factor in a relatively small percentage of trucking accidents.

Trucking companies that are lax about conducting background checks before hiring new truck drivers are directly responsible for many injuries and fatalities caused by commercial truck drivers that should not be on the roadways of Mississippi.

The Barrett Law Office represents those injured in commercial trucking accidents throughout Mississippi.  We are committed to handling the legal and insurance issues related to serious Mississippi trucking accidents so that our clients can focus on healing.  If you or your loved one has suffered injury or the loss of a loved one in a tractor-trailer accident, a Mississippi truck accident attorney is available today for a free initial consultation when you call us today at (662) 834-2376.

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