A previous post on this blog discussed how federal regulations require many, if not most truck drivers, to pull over and rest after they have been behind the wheel or on the road for a certain number of hours. The reason for these rules is to prevent a trucker from driving while too tired to operate a large commercial vehicle.
Fatigued driving, particularly when it involves a truck or other large commercial vehicle, is dangerous. Fatigued driving is comparable to drunk or drugged driving. An overly tired person, even if he or she does not actually start to drift-off behind the wheel, will have slowed judgment and reaction times, making it much more likely that the truck driver will collide with something or someone.
When fatigued driving happens on the roads in and around Pittsburgh, it can leave an area family coping with either a loved one’s serious injury, or even that person’s death. In addition to the emotional stress, mounting medical bills and other expenses, as well as lost income, are serious issues.
Most Pennsylvanians would probably agree that when this sort of accident happens, the truck driver should pay compensation to cover a family’s financial and other losses. But, the problem is often hard to clearly identify whether a driver is fatigued without the help of an experienced Pennsylvania law firm who knows how to unpack a trucking accident to identify the responsible party.
After all, no trucker or trucking company is going to admit to driving, or allowing a driver to operate a vehicle, while too tired to do so safely. In fact, many truckers will unfortunately, doctor their trucking log to make it look like they have followed the federal rest rules. Our office knows how to cut through the maze of complexities and, in some cases, outrights ruses to get victims the compensation they deserve.