Truck accidents cause serious injuries. All too often victims are left with debilitating harm that affects their ability to work and otherwise live a normal life. Recovering from these injuries can be painful and costly, which might be overwhelming for a truck accident victim. However, these victims should take comfort knowing that they might have legal options at their disposal when it comes to imposing liability and recovering compensation.
While doing so requires showing a trucker’s negligence, there are a number of ways to go about establishing that fact. One option is to put forth evidence that a trucker violated certain safety regulations, such as those pertaining to hours of service. These federal regulations, reserved for interstate truckers, are meant to keep truckers rested and attentive while behind the wheel by limiting the hours they can drive during certain periods of time.
There are a number of restrictions under these regulations. To start, truckers are only allowed to be on duty for 14 hours after a 10-hour long test period. No more than 11 hours of these 14 can be drive time. Although truckers are required to take a rest break of at least 30 minutes every eight hours, any break time taken doesn’t extend the 14-hour on duty limit. Truckers are also limited to no more than 60 hours in any seven-day period and no more than 70 hours in any eight-day period.
Proving a hours of service violation can be challenging as it may require you to obtain trucking logs and depositions of pertinent witnesses. Carrying out these tasks and crafting compelling legal arguments requires legal know-how and an understanding of personal injury negotiation and litigation. Therefore, if you’ve been injured in a truck accident, then you might want to consider discussing the matter with an experienced legal advocate to better determine the best approach to take to your case.