Commercial vehicle drivers tend to describe fatigue as “nodding off” or as “being asleep at the wheel”. In scientific terms, they are actually having brief, involuntary, ‘micro-sleeps’ of two to thirty seconds. They are momentarily not in charge of their vehicles’ speed, of course, and they typically have no memory of this lapse. This is one reason why drivers seldom report fatigue as the cause of an accident, and why many fleets do not even realize that they have a severe and potentially dangerous fatigue problem among their drivers. Since the driver is incapacitated from taking evasive action at the point of impact due to his or her reduced level of alertness, fatigue-related accidents are often severe in terms of injury, damage and cost. In certain types of cases, Truck accident lawsuits can force companies to shell out several million dollars in damage settlements, including money for medical bills, lost wages, and mental anguish.

Research estimates that fatigue-related accidents account for 15% of the total accidents and as much as 80% of the total cost. For drivers all over the country, this should be a major concern. Short-haul drivers that work more of a standard daily schedule face the same risk of accidents as long-haul drivers. Inner-city traffic mixed with long work days can be a dangerous mix. The total number of crashes, although declining, is still unacceptably high, meaning more truck accident lawsuits. Victims are faced with potentially severe injuries, lost wages, the inability to provide for their children and other family, or even loss of life, at the hands of the trucking industry.