Our Texas Truck Accident Injury Lawyer Discusses Common Unsafe Trucking Practices
Our Texas Truck Accident Injury Lawyer Discusses Common Unsafe Trucking Practices
Unsafe trucking practices lead to approximately 100,000 injuries and 5,000 deaths per year in the United States alone. These astronomical numbers are a somber reminder that this necessary part of modern living has its price. Large commercial trucks, 18-wheelers, semis, big-rigs, and other types of commercial vehicles can cause immense damage when even a small error occurs. Trucking accidents in Texas can be caused by any number of unsafe trucking practices.
Asleep at the Wheel
Truckers earn their wages by spending time on the road and by quickly delivering their goods. This can be a recipe for disaster as it causes some truck drivers to overextend themselves and drive too long under poor, personal physical conditions. Likely causes of truck accidents often involve a driver falling asleep at the wheel, then causing devastating amounts of damage to both themselves and others. While these are well-known risks, Congress recently chose to actually extend the number of possible hours a truck driver is allowed to legally drive from ten hours to eleven hours. Adding that extra hour may not seem like much, but, in reality, it has been a continual cause for unsafe trucking practices.
However, there are rules and regulations stated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, that define the necessary limits of fatigue and other factors relating to commercial truck drivers:
Article 392.3 – Ill or fatigued operator
“No driver shall operate a commercial motor vehicle, and a motor carrier shall not require or permit a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle, while the driver’s ability or alertness is so impaired, or so likely […]






