Sleep apnea as cause of crashes
Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder which can leave people with excessive tiredness, and lethargy. An Austrailian news report discusses research on sleep apnea as a cause of road crashes. See story.
The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a "SuperLawyer" in Atlanta Magazine and one of the "Legal Elite" in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks).
In 2003, New Jersey became the first state to criminalize drowsy driving that leads to fatal accidents.
Know as "Maggie's Law" (named after Maggie McDonnell, a N.J. college student who was killed in a head-on collision with a driver who hadn't slept for over 30 hours), it amended N.J.S.A. 2C:11-5 to provide that "proof that the defendant fell asleep while driving or was driving after having been without sleep for a period in excess of 24 consecutive hours may give rise to an inference that the defendant was driving recklessly." Violation of the law, which applies to operators of boats as well as all motorized land vehicles, is a second-degree crime and penalties can range as high as 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
The law does not, however, allow police officers to stop motorists with heavy eyelids.
And while it may make it easier to prosecute and convict someone for vehicular homicide, cases of driving while drowsy are not new to the courts and convictions have been sustained in the past under general principles of recklessness and manslaughter statutes. Grindstaff v. State, 377 S.W.2d 921 (Tenn. 1964) (involuntary manslaughter conviction upheld against defendant who continued to drive despite recognizing his drowsy condition); Mullaney v. White, 109 N.E.2d 158 (Mass. 1952) (evidence sustained finding that defendant had been guilty of gross negligence in driving while drowsy); Commonwealth v. Otis, 528 A.2d 249, 252 (Pa. Super. 1987) (jury could properly find defendant criminally negligent for having driven vehicle without having slept for thirty-six hours).
Gartrell v. Russell, 180 S.E. 860 (Ga. App. 1935) is a particularly fascinating case out of Georgia which deals with this topic during a time before concepts such as vicarious liability, scope of employment and other doctrines of imputed negligence had become fully developed.
Two employees of a trucking company were riding shotgun together while delivering oil for the Gulf Refining Company. Their employer required them to make continuous runs over the course of several days with each one resting while the other one drove (prior to the development of the Federal hours-of-service (HOS) regulations later in the 1930's). Unfortunately, on this particular run the driver fell asleep along with the passenger and the passenger was killed in the ensuing accident.
In a wrongful death lawsuit against the trucking company the court held that the employer (master) was not liable and, most astonishing, that the passenger, who in no way contributed to the accident, assumed the risk involved when he obeyed the trucking company's unreasonable rules of driving continuously with little or no rest.
Ah yes, the good ole' days indeed.
One-third of all adult Americans--about 50 million people--complain about their sleep. Some sleep too little, some fitfully, and some too much. Although one-third of our lives is spent asleep, most of us don't know much about sleep, not even our own. We don't even know exactly why we sleep, other than--like an overnight battery recharge--sleep promotes daytime alertness. Sleep problems profoundly disturb both sleeping and waking life.
Some useful resources to help you out from all kinds of sleep disorders:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov
http://www.sleepdisordersguide.com
http://www.stanford.edu
http://www.neurologychannel.com
