Missouri Truck Accident Lawyer Discusses Role of Sleep Apnea in Causing Fatigue
The road can be a dangerous place, and we follow the rules of the road in order to protect the people we love and ourselves. Tractor-Trailer drivers also have rules that need to be followed, but when they don’t follow the federal motor carrier safety regulations, the victims and their families are the ones that pay the price. As a Missouri truck accident attorney, I know that sleep apnea is a dangerous disorder for a tractor-trailer driver to have, but now some drivers admit that the fatigue from the disorder and truck accidents are related.
The greater part of serious truck accidents in Missouri are caused by tractor-trailer drivers that are fatigued, which is a side effect of sleep apnea. Many different studies show that drivers with sleep apnea drive as poorly as drivers who are intoxicated, which puts a lot of motorists in danger on the road. One study found that 28% of tractor-trailer drivers had sleep apnea. One-third of those with sleep apnea reported having severe sleep apnea. The researchers interviewed 1,391 commercial tractor-trailer drivers to complete the study, which is only a small sample of the commercial tractor-trailer drivers on the road.
People who suffer with sleep apnea cannot get a good nights sleep because the disorder causes the body to stop breathing for a short time and they wake up to gasp for air. Tractor-trailer drivers who don’t get enough sleep are putting Missouri drivers at risk. There are a higher percentage of tractor-trailer drivers with the sleep disorder than the rest of the public because truck drivers as a group have a higher rate of obesity. Unfortunately, tractor-trailer drivers are not always able to maintain a healthy lifestyle on the road because they suffer from illnesses that the general public does not.
The trucking companies that knowingly hire unhealthy tractor-trailer drivers regardless whether they pass the standard health qualifications must be held responsible for their negligence. In the future, I hope more will be done to reduce the number of tractor-trailer drivers with fatigue problems like sleep apnea to help prevent the number of truck accidents. If you have been seriously injured or lost a loved one in a Missouri truck accident, please call an experienced Missouri truck accident attorney. Commercial trucking companies will do everything they can to avoid paying out too much on a personal injury or wrongful death claim, so call 877.SUE.TRKS and let us deal with them for you.
Joshua P. Myers is the owner and President of Myers Injury Law, LLC and a founding partner of Schultz & Myers, LLC. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, his personal injury law firm routinely handles semi-truck accidents that result in personal injury or death throughout the Midwest. If you have been hurt or have lost a loved one due to the negligence of another driver, please contact a truck accident attorney to learn your rights. It is always free to discuss your case and there are never any attorney’s fees until we recover on your behalf.
Tags: apnea, attorney, driver, fatigue, lawyer, missouri truck accident lawyer, semi, sleep
