Hours Of Service Violations

On of the most important aspects of truck driving governed by The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations are the Hours of Service.  Essentially, these regulations strictly control how long a truck driver can drive his tractor-trailer before having to take a rest.  As a Missouri Truck Accident Lawyer and Attorney, we know that the Hours of Service safety rules are often the truck drivers top enemy.  Simply, they do not make money unless they are on the road.  Thus, the more they drive, the more money they make.  The same is true for the truck company.  However, the longer the driver is on the road, the more fatigued they become - and fatigue is a major cause of semi-truck collisions.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has done exhaustive scientific studies in order to determine the applicable Hours of Service Regulations.  These Safety Regulations are codified at Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.  These Safety Regulations differ based upon whether the Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) is carrying passengers, such as a bus, or strictly carrying property.   

Missouri Semi-Truck Accident Lawyers must aggressively investigate whether there are any Hours of Service violations.  This is done in several ways.  First, every truck driver is required to maintain a log of his driving time.  However, this often reveals little as the drivers are often smart enough to create their logs in a way so that it does not show any violations by itself.  This is why we also obtain many other documents such as global positioning printouts of the truck, bills of lading, fuel receipts, credit card receipts etc.  All of these documents will allow us to pinpoint the driver's location at a given time and that can be compared to their logs.  Thus, if their log shows they were in their bunk and these documents show that they actually had begun driving, then we can prove that the truck driver was lying on the logs and that he was likely to have been fatigued at the time of the truck wreck.  Most states hold that violations of these safety regulations are grounds for punitive damages.  Showing Hours of Service Violations is one of the many tactics we use to increase the value of your truck accident settlement.  This is why most truck companies will destroy most of these documents soon after a crash.  This is why it is important to retain a truck accident lawyer immediately.  As soon as we are brought onto the case, we will send a "Preservation Letter" to the truck company and its insurer instructing them to retain all of these documents.  If they still destroy these documents, then it is considered a spoliation of evidence and it can be used against them at trial.        

The chart below shows a comparison of the often violated hours of service safety regulations.

HOURS-OF-SERVICE RULES
Property-Carrying CMV Drivers	Passenger-Carrying CMV Drivers
11-Hour Driving Limit May drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty.	10-Hour Driving Limit May drive a maximum of 10 hours after 8 consecutive hours off duty.
14-Hour Limit May not drive beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, following 10 consecutive hours off duty. Off-duty time does not extend the 14-hour period.	15-Hour On-Duty Limit May not drive after having been on duty for 15 hours, following 8 consecutive hours off duty. Off-duty time is not included in the 15-hour period.
60/70-Hour On-Duty Limit May not drive after 60/70 hours on duty in 7/8 consecutive days. A driver may restart a 7/8 consecutive day period after taking 34 or more consecutive hours off duty.	60/70-Hour On-Duty Limit May not drive after 60/70 hours on duty in 7/8 consecutive days.
Sleeper Berth Provision Drivers using the sleeper berth provision must take at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth, plus a separate 2 consecutive hours either in the sleeper berth, off duty, or any combination of the two.	Sleeper Berth Provision Drivers using a sleeper berth must take at least 8 hours in the sleeper berth, and may split the sleeper-berth time into two periods provided neither is less than 2 hours.