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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
He then listened to the weather report, heard the fog was going to be around all morning, decided he did not have the time to wait for conditions to improve or he would be unable to drive his next shift. So he got back in his freightliner truck and, despite full knowledge of the risks and dangers, proceeded down the highway and rammed the back of the Bessey vehicle, causing a young child’s death.
The trucking industry has long understood the well-known risks and dangers of accident and death caused by motor carriers who dispatch drivers who are suffering from cumulative fatigue. The literature on fatigue by the National Safety Council, and the United States Department of Transportation, and the trucking industry’s own publications, show that a driver suffering from cumulative fatigue is just as impaired as a driver who is legally |
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intoxicated. Studies have shown cumulative fatigue will slow a driver’s reaction time by as much as five to twenty-five percent (5-25%), cause micro-sleep episodes, slow reaction and perception times, and cause drivers to exercise poor judgment. Fatigue is so well recognized as a risk factor in the motor carrier industry that there are specific Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations that address the number of hours a driver may operate his truck, such as the “maximum driving time regulation”. FMCSR 395.3 limits the number of hours of driving time, regulates |
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driver off-duty time, and calculates driving limits based on seven or eight day periods
Plaintiff’s allegations were that NAPA Auto Parts and Genuine Parts Company: (1) knowingly dispatched a dangerously fatigued driver who was over hours and in violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations’ maximum driving time limits; (2) destroyed the evidence that would show the truck driver was falsifying his log books; (3) violated the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, Genuine Parts Company’s own “Truck and Driver Regulations” and “Fleet Safety Program” in the hiring, retention, and training of the truck driver; (4) truck driver’s actions in operating his truck before the accident were wanton and reckless; and (5) the truck driver’s violations and accidents, both before and after the collision, demonstrated his lack of training and should have put his company on notice that the driver did not have the proper knowledge to safely operate a NAPA truck. After unsuccessful mediation, plaintiff’s claims for compensatory and punitive damages were resolved in a confidential settlement one week prior to trial. |
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NAPA truck collision near Ryan, Iowa. |
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