Most people are well aware of the dangers of distracted driving, but there’s another form of driving that can be just as harmful and deadly: drowsy driving. Far too many motorists take to the road when they are tired and fatigued, which can cause them to drift into oncoming traffic, fail to stop at stop signs and red lights, or neglect to yield to pedestrians at intersections. These accidents can be especially devastating when they involve truckers.
Sleep apnea and unsafe trucking
Truckers are subjected to a lot of federal regulations that are aimed at ensuring safe driving practices. Yet, these regulations are a little lax when it comes to medical conditions. While some conditions can outright render a trucker ineligible to drive, others only require a trucker to stop driving if his or her condition affects his or her ability to operate the truck in a safe fashion.
Sleep apnea is one of the conditions that falls into the latter category. This condition causes breathing disruptions during sleep that cause an individual to wake up as many as 400 times a night. This leads to extreme tiredness and fatigue that can have a profound impact on a trucker’s ability to safely operate his or her vehicle. But current regulations allow a trucker with sleep apnea to drive if they have treatment that renders them medically cleared to drive. This essentially leaves reporting the condition to truckers who suffer from this condition.
Why does this matter to you?
If you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident, then you’ll want to think about what you can do to build a legal claim. Doing so could lead to the recovery of compensation. However, gathering the evidence needed to support one of these claims isn’t always as easy as it seems. There are steps that you can take, though, to gather relevant evidence, such as an untreated medical condition that affects trucking safety.
If you’d like to learn more about how to build your truck accident case, then reaching out to an experienced legal professional might be in your best interests.