The danger posed by a gargantuan tractor-trailer combination weighing 25 time more than a passenger vehicle and traveling Bay Area freeways at sixty miles per hour is a terrifying prospect. The limited handling and massive size of commercial trucks make the likelihood of tractor-trailer collisions higher than with passenger vehicles. These risks increase exponentially when the San Francisco truck driver is not medically fit to operate a tractor-trailer. Unfortunately, trucking regulations are extremely lax in terms of preventing operation of a tractor-trailer by a medically unfit driver, and many trucking companies do not carefully screen drivers who have been out of service for medical reasons. At our San Francisco trucking accident law firm, we have the experience and expertise to provide zealous representation to those who are injured or who lose a loved one in a tractor-trailer collision involving a medically unfit driver.
A serious tractor-trailer accident in Oklahoma a couple of years ago provides a vivid example of the serious tractor-trailer accident risk associated with unfit drivers. The truck driver drove over the top of two passenger cars in a carriage override accident after dozing off behind the wheel. The eight people in the two passenger vehicles suffered fatal roof crush injuries in the trucking accident. The commercial driver had been driving for ten hours straight when the trucking collision occurred at three in the morning. The driver had just been released from the hospital after a stay for cardiac arrest and was still taking medication that caused drowsiness. The truck driver attempted to cover up the cause of the trucking accident by claiming that the tractor-trailer had been parked and that the drivers of the passenger cars drove their vehicles under the tractor-trailer.
Despite the fact that the driver had just been hospitalized for a serious medical condition and was taking medication that impaired his ability to drive, the trucking company allowed him to climb behind the wheel putting occupants of other motor vehicles in danger. An investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Administration (NTSB) revealed that the fatal trucking accident was the result of driver fatigue. The deadly trucking collision occurred during the driver’s first day back behind the wheel after his hospitalization.
There are virtually no standards or requirements for ensuring a truck driver is medically fit to operate a tractor-trailer. The driver must obtain a certificate of medical fitness, but this does not need to come from a physician. A nurse, chiropractor or almost any other health care professional may provide the certificate. This is no approved list of medical evaluators that are qualified to determine that a truck driver is medically fit nor are there any guidelines or standards for making such a determination. In other words, medical certification of truck drivers is essentially illusionary.
Despite calls to strengthen and standardize the requirements for determining medical fitness for truck accidents, the process has remained relatively unchanged over the last decade. There have been hundreds of fatal trucking accidents in recent years attributable to drivers that were medically unfit to be driving. There are many medical conditions that can impede a truck driver’s ability to safely operate a tractor-trailer. Driving a tractor-trailer while taking medication that makes a driver drowsy is both unsafe and illegal.
Contact Us For A Consultation Today
If you are involved in a tractor-trailer accident in San Francisco, our experienced San Francisco tractor-trailer accident attorneys have assisted many victims injured in motor vehicle accidents in the Bay Area. We invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.