A trucking company may push its employees to work long past a reasonable number of hours. These trucking companies can increase their profits by demanding that their employees drive an excessive number of miles to meet a deadline. To meet these high pressure deadlines, a driver may continue to drive when they should be off the clock, as there are federally established regulations for hours of service. This can result in serious safety problems on the road for truckers and other drivers.
Trucking companies need to provide reasonable deadlines to cut back on driver exhaustion and to comply with the appropriate laws. If dangerous scheduling has led to an accident that caused you harm, contact the St. Louis hours of service violation lawyers of the Finney Law Office at 314-646-0300 today.
Problems with Excessive Hours
A truck driver can only manage a certain number of hours on the road before they are driving dangerously close to a state of exhaustion. Even mild fatigue on the road can have a major impact on a driver’s ability to drive safely. In cases of severe fatigue, there is an apt and widely used comparison to drunk driving in terms of loss of driving ability.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has established restrictions and requirements pertaining to the hours that a driver can spend on the road, as well as mandatory rest periods. The following issues may arise if a driver is pushed to stay on the road for too long, in violation of the regulations:
- Falling asleep at the wheel
- Drifting between lanes
- Failure to signal
- Drastically lower reaction time
Given the size of tractor-trailers, it is crucial that operators of these vehicles are prepared to safely drive these vehicles.
Contact Us
If you have been injured in a collision caused by a fatigued driver who was overscheduled by a trucking company, contact the St. Louis hours of service violation attorneys of the Finney Law Office today by calling 314-646-0300.