The deadly tractor trailer crash happened on Highway 316 in Georgia on Buford Drive. At least one child who was under 10 was involved, but no one who went to the hospital suffered life-threatening injuries.
It is not clear at this time what caused the crash, but a driver of a gray SUV told the police that she heard a tractor-trailer behind her in traffic that was not going to stop. She instinctively kicked the door open and ran from her vehicle just before the tractor trailer rear-ended her SUV. That collision then led to a chain reaction crash involving several other vehicles.
Investigators for the state are still studying why the truck smashed into the stopped car.
Our View
Our experience in many serious tractor trailer crashes as personal injury lawyers tell us that driver fatigue could be a factor in this wreck. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 13% of commercial truck crashes are due at least in part to driver fatigue.
All truck drivers should be sure that they get enough sleep every night. While many truck drivers prefer to drive at night when there is less traffic, the fact is that we are more likely to fall asleep when nature tells us that we should be sleeping. The hours from 12 am to 6 am are especially dangerous, as are the hours after lunch from 2 to 4 pm.
The FMCSA also has done research that indicates that the alertness of a truck driver is more related to the time of day than how many hours he or she has been driving. People are simply less alert at some times of the day than others.
Also, fatigued driving accidents happen more often in the first hour of driving. It is thought that truck drivers could be affected by having just woken up from naps.
Our personal injury attorneys have experience in Virginia truck crashes where the truck driver fell asleep. In one case in Virginia Beach, the truck driver fell asleep and slammed into our clients’ car at a stop sign. This caused the huge truck to basically run over their car and this led to grave head injuries to their children in the rear of the car.
This very serious truck accident caused by driver fatigue resulted in a $5.5 million settlement.