A 66 year old man died on June 29 when two big rigs slammed into each other in I-75 in Tennessee near exit 11. 

The man, James Newman from Athens TN, was killed when riding as a passenger in the cabin of a tractor trailer driven by Danny Caldwell, 43. Caldwell’s truck slammed into the back of another tractor trailer at 4:40 AM. The first rig had stopped on the interstate due to another wreck on the road.

The state police stated that the fatal wreck happened as traffic from the northbound side of I-75 was backed up from another crash an hour earlier.

According to local news reports, this crash happened in almost the same spot as a major crash in June 2015 that killed six people. Another tractor trailer came upon slowed traffic and slammed into eight cars.

This area of Tennessee near Chattanooga is known to be vulnerable to big rig crashes because of the geography of the region and high traffic volume.

Our View

Approximately 13% of all truck crashes are due to truck driver fatigue. Truck drivers often fall asleep at the wheel or have slower responses to danger because they drive long hours and often drive at night to avoid traffic. Truck driver fatigue also can be due to the aggressive scheduling of trucking companies that are trying to get loads to their destinations on schedule.

Although there are many federal rules that are designed to reduce truck driver fatigue, it is still a big problem that leads to many fatal truck accidents each year across the US. As truck crash attorneys in Virginia, we often represent grieving families who have lost loved ones to a sleepy truck driver.

These truck driver fatigue wrongful death cases are challenging to win because the attorney must prove that the driver was tired and not fit to drive when the crash happened. This can be done by reviewing the truck driver’s log, and the driver may also have appeared sleepy or fatigued to the police or witnesses.

Our Virginia truck crash law firm has successfully represented a family whose loved ones were seriously injured by a fatigued truck driver, leading to a $5.5 million settlement.