Accidents Caused By Truck Driver Fatigue

No case is too tough for our Nashville law firm

Commercial truck drivers often spend full days driving across Tennessee and the country. While drivers are limited in the number of hours they are permitted to drive per day, not all drivers abide by the rules.

Even when they do things by the book, at The Law Office of Eric Beasley we know truck driver fatigue can still set in and lead to major truck accidents.

Tired or dozing due to lack of sleep, too much driving, or other factors, truck driver fatigue is one of the main causes of commercial truck accidents. A fatigue-related crash with a fully loaded, 80,000-pound semi can lead to catastrophic injuries.

For more than 20 years, our firm has aggressively sought full compensation on behalf of our clients. Whether you or a loved one has suffered a fracture, internal organ damage, brain injuries, even death, you need legal advice from a lawyer experienced in Tennessee truck accident law. Trucker fatigue can be difficult to prove but no case is too tough or complicated for our firm.

Gathering evidence

Investigating a truck accident would be hard for just about anyone who isn’t familiar with Tennessee truck accident law. What’s even more difficult, though, is investigating a truck accident in the days immediately after being hit by a big rig.

This is no time to go it alone. Truck accidents are serious and often cause lifelong injuries, such as paralysis or brain damage. You and your family cannot afford to miss a piece of crucial evidence or get tricked by an insurance adjuster into accepting fault for an accident you didn’t cause.

In the aftermath of a bad truck accident there are a lot of places to search for evidence to investigate the crash – if you know where to look. To prove your claim, our legal team will collect all available evidence including the computer or black box recording devices on the truck, freight records and the driver's logbooks to help establish that the driver was fatigued at the time of the accident.

To win damages in a fatigue claim, you must prove that the truck driver who drove into you owed you a duty of care – such as the duty to refrain from falling asleep at the wheel – and that the truck driver breached that duty, causing the accident and your harm.

If you were injured or lost a loved one in an accident caused by truck driver fatigue, you may be able to pursue damages. Attorney Eric Beasley is a seasoned Nashville truck accident lawyer with the skills and experience needed to help you get the compensation you deserve from negligent parties. These parties may include the truck driver and even the driver’s employer.

Filing a claim

In addition to pursuing a claim against the truck driver that caused the accident, in cases where the driver has an employment relationship with a trucking company, you can likely file claims against the driver's employer. It’s possible the employer knew or should have known that the driver was unfit to do his or her job, or just too tired to drive, and therefore posed a threat of harm to others.

The employer and trucker would know the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations on how many hours a driver can be on the road and behind the wheel. The federal law says that truck drivers are only permitted to drive for 11 hours in a 14-hour period after being off duty for 10 or more hours. Also, drivers cannot drive for more than 60 hours per week. Drivers are also required to keep track of their hours in a logbook.

There can be multiple parties responsible in a truck accident – the truck driver, the trucking company, the cargo owner, the company that loaded the cargo, the manufacturer of defective truck parts - each with their own insurance company and attorney.

Accidents caused by truck driver fatigue are often devastating, causing substantial and lasting harm. If you or a loved one were injured or lost a family member in a truck accident, contact the knowledgeable injury attorneys at The Law Office of Eric Beasley for a free consultation. We will go over your case and discuss your legal options.