The safety board offered the reminder in a press release during National Sleep Awareness Week. It’s a stance supported by the truck accident lawyers at PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, a premier personal injury law firm that has years of experience representing people seriously injured or killed in accidents with semi-trailers.

The most recent NTSB example of injuries and death that can result from a sleep-deprived truck driver is the October 16, 2005, freeway crash near Osseo, Wisconsin, of a Whole Foods truck-tractor semitrailer and a motor coach carrying a high school marching band home to Chippewa Falls High School.

Five people in the motorcoach died, including the driver, and 35 others were injured, many seriously.

According to the NTSB’s final report, issued just last year, the 22-year-old driver of the tractor-trailer was asleep at the time of the accident because of reduced quality of sleep the night before. The NTSB said his employer gave him adequate off-duty time to sleep, but he stayed out drinking with friends and didn’t get to bed until 6 a.m.

The report said alcohol consumption deprives people of quality sleep. A key conclusion of the accident investigation was that the truck driver reduced the quality of his sleep by drinking “and the circadian desynchronization he experienced due to his operating the truck in the early morning hours, when the body is predisposed to sleep.”

The driver was westbound on Interstate 94, carrying groceries from Indiana to the Twin Cities. When his truck veered sharply off the road, the rumble strips on the shoulder woke him up and he jerked the steering wheel to the left, causing the cab and trailer to fall on its side and block both westbound lanes.

In the darkness, the motorcoach driver didn’t see the truck laying across the lanes until it was too late. Better brakes on the motorcoach would have reduced the force of the impact, but not prevented the crash, the NTSB ruled.

This week, NTSB Board member Deborah Hersman said, “Fatigue can impair a person behind the wheel or at the helm much like alcohol or other drugs. We must ensure that as much as possible is being done to protect our transportation system from the insidious effect of human fatigue.”

Minnesota auto accident cases often involve driver negligence, including fatigue, which is more involved than one might think. Contact a Minnesota car accident attorney at PritzkerOlsen by calling 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or fill out a free case consultation form. 

Our attorneys are nationally recognized and have been quoted in news sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and CNN, as well as many local network television affiliates.

No adverse weather conditions were reported for 87 percent of the fatal crashes and for 89 percent of the nonfatal crashes involving large trucks. Rain was the most common adverse weather condition.

In other findings from the 2007 Large Truck Crash Overview published recently by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), speeding was a factor in 25 percent of fatal crashes involving a large truck.

A good truck accident lawyer like those at PritzkerOlsen Attorneys closely examines all the factors in any crash that results in injury or death. From experience, some of the most common factors cited for drivers of large trailer trucks and drivers of passenger vehicles are the same: Driving too fast, failure to keep in proper lane, inattention and failure to yield the right of way.

In truck accidents, it is important to sort out who are the liable parties.  The possibilities include the trucking company, the owner of the tractor trailer cab and trailer, the driver of the truck, the employer of the driver, the manufacturer of the tractor trailer cab or of the trailer, or a third-party maintenance company that may take care of the truck.

The 2007 Large Truck Crash Overview, FMCSA also found that in two-vehicle fatal rear-end crashes, passenger vehicles struck large trucks in the rear approximately three times more often than large trucks struck passenger vehicles in the rear — 16 percent versus 5 percent.

There was a similar imbalance for head-on fatal crashes, where a large truck crossed the center line in 1 percent of fatal accidents involving a large truck versus a passenger vehicle crossing the center line in 16 percent of the fatal accidents.

But in other crashes, large trucks struck passenger vehicles 32 percent of the time versus passenger vehicles striking large trucks 24 percent of the time.

Additionally, 24 percent of fatal crashes that took place in work zones — areas of construction, maintenance, or utility activity — involved a large truck.

According to the summary of fatal truck accidents and injury truck accidents from 2003 to 2007, the number of people who died in Minnesota crashes involving large trucks was 84 in 2007. That’s 16 more than in 2003 and 22 more than in 2006.

In 2004 there were 74 deaths and in 2005 the death toll was 70 in Minnesota crashes involving large trucks.

Meanwhile, the number of people injured in crashes involving large trucks remained fairly stable over the five-year span. In 2003 the injury number was 1,080 compared with 1,073 in 2007.  The most injuries in any year during the five-year span was 1,292 in 2004. The results are for Minnesota only.

If you or someone you know has been injured or killed in a Minnesota truck accident, please see our Truck Accident Resource Center, which includes a list of frequently asked questions and answers.

PritzkerOlsen Attorneys is a premier personal injury law firm with deep experience and documented success in Minnesota truck accident lawsuits and settlements. Contact one of our lawyers by calling 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or completing a free case consultation form.