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A tired big rig driver was probably at fault for your wreck; you could also file an auto negligence claim against the driver’s trucking company or another company responsible for putting the driver into an unsafe work situation. To find out if fatigue was involved in the wreck of a commercial vehicle, a fatigued semi-truck driver wreck attorney in Tulsa will review electronic logbook entries, as well as dispatch orders, GPS tracking information, receipts, and/or delivery documentation to establish if fatigue was a factor. It is not necessary for the driver to admit he/she was asleep, nor to receive a traffic ticket.
A timeline needs to be established as quickly as possible. In addition to seeking medical attention and documenting damages/losses suffered by you, it is essential to preserve all documents that detail how long the driver operated his/her vehicle before the collision occurred, and details regarding who pressured the driver to keep driving after hours.
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An accident victim (motorist, passenger, motorcycle operator, pedestrian, bicyclist) may file a lawsuit when a person’s hazardous levels of fatigue were a contributing factor in their involvement in a collision that resulted in bodily harm, death, or property damage. If the accident resulted in the passing of a family member, a wrongful death claim can be filed by who is appointed as their personal representative. However, there must also be evidence connecting the drowsy driving to the crash itself. Drowsiness by itself is insufficient if it did not contribute to nor increase the severity of the incident.
Lane drifting; variations in speed; delays in braking; failure to obey traffic control devices; lack of evident evasive actions taken; statements from the driver regarding fatigue; etc. can be some of the signs and/or symptoms that may indicate potential negligence due to excessive fatigue. These signs/symptoms individually are not sufficient to prove your case. All of these factors must be reviewed collectively with video footage of the accident; witness testimony; vehicle data recorders; and the driver’s employment history.
In cases where fatalities occur as a result of a collision, Oklahoma Statute generally allows the Personal Representative of the estate to pursue a Wrongful Death Lawsuit. The Statute outlines damages available for recovery and typically has a two-year time limit for filing.
The particular set of federal laws will depend upon many things, including what type of vehicle the driver operates, what kind of goods are being transported, where they travel, and if there is an applicable exemption. In addition to whether or not the driver violated a maximum number of hours allowed under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, the other question that may arise is whether the driver was so fatigued as to drive unsafely regardless of how many hours he/she drove.
A driver may have been operating in a manner dangerous due to excessive fatigue even though their total hours driven did not exceed the prescribed maximum.
Generally, property-carrying drivers that are subject to 49 CFR § 395.3 are required to take 10 consecutive hours of off-duty time before they can drive again. The maximum number of hours that these property-carrying drivers can drive within a 14-hour period after coming on duty is 11 hours. Also, with the exception of those property-carrying drivers who qualify under the “short haul” provision, once an individual has driven for 8 cumulative hours, they cannot continue to drive until they take a consecutive 30-minute break from driving. Also, property carrying drivers are generally restricted from driving after being on duty for sixty hours in seven consecutive days if the carrier does not operate each day of the week, or seventy hours in eight consecutive days if the carrier operates every day of the week. There are some exceptions and restart provisions that may apply.
Additionally, although schedule pressure alone does not create a claim for civil damages, communication between dispatch personnel and/or other parties involved in the movement of the shipment regarding the need to meet a demanding delivery time may indicate which party had knowledge of an unreasonable delivery time and who had control of the movement of the freight.
The best investigation will not consider an electronic logging device (ELD) as your final conclusion. Instead, ask yourself if your log reflects what was recorded by the company for other business reasons.
An ELD can document the date, time, location, engine hours, vehicle mileage, driver name, truck number, and carrier name. This information may show that the vehicle moved during a time he said he rested; however, it cannot establish if the driver really did rest when he was off-duty.Â
An ELD can also provide you with the timeline of a driver’s activities, but this does not necessarily mean those are the actual events of the day. Other factors such as outside activity, illness, or a medical condition (e.g., sleep apnea), taking prescription medication, or having his regular sleeping pattern disrupted could have kept him awake.
You must look elsewhere for proof of these claims. Also, check to see who has edited the data. Federal regulations do allow you to make amendments and comments to the data, but any proposed edits made by carriers must be confirmed by drivers prior to acceptance, and the original data and source data for hours worked cannot be deleted.
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There are several types of documentation that can help validate your log of hours. Some examples are:
FMCSA identifies bills of lading, dispatch records, expense receipts, fleet communications, and payroll records as recognized categories of supporting documents. The purpose is to verify the driver’s duty record, which is also why records from different systems should be compared rather than reviewed in isolation.
Timing is important for a specific reason. A carrier generally must keep duty status records and supporting documents for at least six months, and it must retain a separate backup of ELD records for six months. A carrier may keep them longer, but the federal minimum is much shorter than Oklahoma’s usual lawsuit deadline.
Liability may rest with the driver who operated in a fatigued state; violated applicable hours-of-service requirements; falsified recorded hours of duty; or disregarded required rest and therefore caused an accident. Liability may also fall on the motor carrier if their own scheduling, supervision, dispatch decisions, or failure to address known safety problems contributed to a crash.
Likewise, liability may also extend to shippers, receivers, brokers, and other intermediaries involved in arranging the transportation (i.e., where their actions go beyond requesting routine services) as they contribute to illegal pressures. Determining liability depends on control; knowledge; causality; and compliance with Oklahoma law. A company’s name/title or contractual designation is insufficient to determine control/knowledge/causality/liability.
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Title 12, Sec. 95 provides Oklahoma with a general time frame of 2 years from the date of injury for filing a personal injury negligence claim. It is imperative to understand this is a statute of limitations for filing, NOT a safe period of time to wait before investigating. In most cases, documentation and evidence related to cargo (records, video), vehicle security devices (physical), and memory of witnesses will be lost prior to the end of the Statute of Limitations.Â
If a governmental agency is involved as either a defendant or party to a liability dispute, different processes may need to be followed. When a state or local governmental entity is named in a lawsuit, claims generally must be filed pursuant to the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act. This statute requires notice to the state or political subdivision within 1 year after the incident resulting in the alleged damages. If a claim goes 90 days without full approval by the state or subdivision, it is typically deemed denied, and a lawsuit generally must be filed within 180 days after that denial (will be subject to any applicable statutory extensions). The requirement for giving notice can be found in Title 51, Sec. 156.Â
Insurance companies can also claim the motorist contributed to the crash by following too closely to the other vehicle; speeding; or failing to avoid a hazard. In Oklahoma, the state follows modified comparative negligence. You may generally recover damages where your own negligence is not greater than that of all responsible parties combined, although your recovery will be reduced based on your percentage of fault. However, if your negligence is greater than the negligence attributable to the responsible parties, then you are barred from recovery.
Insurance companies will likely claim your logs show compliance with Hours of Service regulations, which eliminates the possibility of being fatigued. That is incorrect. Compliance with the Hours of Service Regulations (i.e., completing the legal duty window) does not necessarily prove you got enough rest; Section 392.3 generally prohibits operation of a vehicle when fatigue impairs, or will likely impair, the operator’s ability/alertness enough to make driving unsafe, regardless of whether the driver is within the hours-of-service limits otherwise. In addition, the insurance company may use as evidence of reasonable actions by the driver that the accident was caused by another vehicle operator, or that some other medical condition contributed to the cause of the accident.
In order to avoid paying for injuries suffered by a victim of a trucking accident, the insurance company will often attempt to blame the injury on the victim’s own conduct. For example, the insurance company may claim that the victim was speeding, following too close behind another vehicle, made an improper turn, or otherwise operated their vehicle improperly. The State of Oklahoma uses a version of comparative negligence in personal injury cases. Typically, you can recover damages from a defendant(s) as long as your level of negligence does not exceed that of all defendants involved in causing your injuries. However, your award amount will be reduced by your percentage of responsibility for the accident. In addition, if the total amount of your negligence is greater than the negligence of all parties at-fault, then you are unable to recover damages.
Compensation may include payment for hospital and ambulance charges, follow-up care, rehab, future medical costs, lost wages, decreased earning capacity, damages to your vehicle, towing, storage of your vehicle, as well as all other losses you can document through evidence.
The amount of legally recoverable damages will depend on the nature and extent of your injuries, the evidence supporting your losses, the parties’ respective fault, and the law applicable on the date of injury. Available insurance coverage and other assets may separately affect how much of a settlement or judgment can ultimately be collected.
For bodily injuries occurring on or after September 1, 2025, Title 23, Section 61.3 provides no cap on economic damages and generally limits noneconomic damages to $500,000, with significant exceptions. There is no limit for qualifying permanent and severe physical injuries. A maximum of $1 million applies to qualifying permanent mental injuries that severely impair a person’s ability to be employed or enjoy a reasonable standard of living. In negligence cases, there is also no limit on noneconomic damages when the required findings establish by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with reckless disregard for the rights of others, was grossly negligent, committed fraud, or acted intentionally or with malice. Section 61.3 does not apply to actions under the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act or actions brought pursuant to Article XXIII, Section 7 of the Oklahoma Constitution.
Under Title 12, Section 95, Oklahoma allows individuals two years from the time their personal rights were injured to take legal action. The above-mentioned two-year period should be distinguished from any shorter federal record retention requirements. As mentioned previously, if a governmental entity is a party to the claim, the Oklahoma Statutes provide that notice must be given in writing within one year, and a lawsuit must be filed within 180 days from receiving such denial. Any exceptions and different claims may affect deadlines.
Attorneys may be particularly helpful when there were serious injuries from this accident; if someone died as a result of this accident; the carrier is denying that fatigue was a contributing factor to this accident; the logs for this vehicle appear to have been falsified; multiple companies controlled the schedules for the driver; or the insurance company wants to take a recorded statement or a final release. A lawyer can help you find all of the carriers and/or other companies involved; send preservation notice(s) with specific documentation requests; get those documents (by using the proper legal means); compare the different computer systems used by the carriers and/or companies; help protect your rights against allegations of fault; create a record of your losses; and pursue filing a lawsuit where it is necessary.
You should not assume that the truck driver was fatigued simply because the wreck happened at night or close to the end of his route. Your goal should be to create a well-supported timeline and to see if the driver’s drowsy condition was a cause of this wreck.Â
Contact Edwards & Patterson Law for a free and confidential case review. A Tulsa fatigued truck driver accident lawyer can discuss the collision, the records that may matter, and your legal options. Call us or use our online contact form.
Generally, loading or unloading time is considered on-duty time. Examples include when you’re either loading/unloading cargo, watching over a shipment while it is being loaded/unloaded, receiving shipping documents, or readying your vehicle for a trip. An exception occurs if you have truly been relieved of all duties. Drowsiness can occur during overnight trips (i.e., nighttime); however, time of day provides no conclusive evidence that drowsiness caused the accident. In fact, many individuals experience decreased levels of awareness later into their nights. The burden is always on the investigator to find evidence supporting sleep patterns, working hours, behavior, and the extent of involvement in the accident prior to making a judgment about fatigue. Team driving does not eliminate the obligation for each employee to record their own duty status; they do retain the responsibility to develop accurate and detailed individual logs for each employee operating the vehicle. It may therefore be necessary to determine which driver(s) were operating the vehicle, what date and time the drivers’ switch occurred, if there exist discrepancies in the respective sleeper berth/duty record entries of each individual, and finally, if the operation of the vehicle is consistent across each log entry of both drivers.Frequently Asked Questions
Can Loading or Waiting Time Count as Off Duty?
Does a Nighttime Crash Prove Driver Fatigue?
What if Two Drivers Were Operating the Same Truck?
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