Truck driver fatigue was the apparent cause of a fiery crash in a construction zone on I-39 in Illinois on January 2nd. The truck driver admitted that he fell asleep entering the construction zone. The tractor trailer crashed into multiple vehicles, killing three innocent travelers.
I don’t just represent people who are run over by tractor trailers. I also represent truck drivers and their widows, and hear a lot of scary tales of how truckers are required to violate hours of service rules despite crushing fatigue in order to make impossible delivery schedules. It is mind boggling that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration continues to yield to trucking industry pressure to avoid requiring electronic monitoring of hours of service. As long as the hours of service rules are enforced only through easily falsified paper logs, we will continue to see fatigue-related carnage on the highways.
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.