Most truck drivers are good people who are concerned with highway safety.
But as in all other lines of work, there are some who break the rules
and make their peers look bad. One of the most commonsafety regulations broken in trucking is the rule restricting the hours a truck driver can
drive and work in a 24-hour period: they can, at most, drive 11 hours
during a maximum 14-hour workday.
As Joplin residents know, truckers who exceed those limits can wind up
dangerously fatigued, posing a menace behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound
vehicle moving at highway speeds. Next door to Missouri, a 51-year-old
man faces criminal charges in a truck crash that killed four people and
left four others injured.
NBC News Chicago said the Elwood, Illinois, accident happened when the
18-wheeler sped into an Interstate 55 construction zone and crashed into
a car, triggering a chain reaction with three other vehicles and another big rig.
An earlier report from NBC said one of those killed was a mother in a vehicle
with three of her four children. The kids, ages 16, 12 and 10, survived
the ordeal, but we can only imagine the shock and trauma involved for
them. One of them remains hospitalized in stable condition; the other
two were treated and released.
An 11-year-old girl in a separate vehicle was also killed in the chain reaction.
Law enforcement officials say the trucker falsified his log book, claiming
he had started work that day between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., when he had
in reality started at 2:30 that morning. The crash happened approximately
12 hours later.
How can we stop truck drivers from causing so much damage and grief? We
can use the law to its full extent and hope that other truckers learn
to adhere to regulations.
People who have lost loved ones or suffered injuries in a truck accident
should speak with an attorney experienced in representing families and
injury victims.
Source: NBC Chicago,
\”Truck Driver Held on $1M Bail in Fatal I-55 Chain Reaction Crash,\” Lauren Petty, July 23, 2014
