Have you ever been driving on the freeway and about to pass a semi-tractor trailer when the semi drifts over into your lane of travel and then, after you honk your horn, the semi truck driver steers his semi back into his proper lane of travel?
What you may well have experienced was an over-the-road trucker who was driving while fatigued and you were fortunate to avoid a serious and potentially fatal accident with a trucker who had exceeded the maximum on-duty and driving hours of services. Unfortunately, despite very specific federal motor carrier safety rules and regulations (over-the-road truck drivers shall not drive more than 11 hours continuously – the 11 hour driving rule – and no truck driver shall be on duty for more than 14 hours continuously – the 14 hour duty rule), over the road trucking companies and truck drivers routinely violate these federal motor carrier safety regulations which are intended to prevent commercial driver fatigue. Each year, many catastrophic and fatal accidents result from commercial driver fatigue due to driving and working over hours.
Our firm has handled truck accident cases, many of which have involved trucking companies and truck drivers found to have violated the federal motor carrier safety rules and regulations regarding driver hours and falsification of driver logs in order to attempt to circumvent compliance with federal motor carrier safety regulations.