Illinois Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I feel strongly that driving while exhausted is never the solution. Fatigued drivers cause many accidents annually, and most drivers do not think they are too tired to drive. Please be safe and smart when deciding whether you are or are not capable of driving safely.

Federal safety investigators say “a tractor-trailer truck driver who slammed his rig into a line of cars stopped on a stretch of Oklahoma highway last year, killing 10 people, was likely suffering from fatigue.” (Washington AP, J. Lowry, 9/28).

Investigators determined that the 76 year old driver likely had less than five hours of sleep before beginning his work day. At the time of the accident, he had already been on the road for 10 hours. The driver’s prior history of sleep apnea may have also contributed to the crash.

Inattention and fatigue caused this driver to fail to stop at a traffic jam resulting from a minor accident. These factors created a major accident, which killed 10 people. In a split second, many lives changed forever, thus proving the urgent necessity of strict regulations of truck driving work hours, sleep requirements, and possibly medical evaluations. In my opinion, serious evaluation should have been undertaken to determine if a 76 year old with a history of sleep apnea could drive long hours safely.