Route 53 truck accident

There was a 4 vehicle chain collision on Route 53 this past Monday near the I-90 overpass.  The crash happened when a tractor trailer rear ended an SUV that was stopped for traffic ahead.  The impact pushed the SUV into two vehicles ahead, including a pickup truck that rolled over.

Chain collisions involving tractor trailers are usually due to inattentive or distracted driving on the part of the truck driver.  Truck drivers have some advantages over other motorists, mainly that they are  sitting up higher and should have a better view of traffic conditions ahead.  They also have the benefit of knowing road and traffic conditions ahead of them from dispatch and other communications.

When we see an accident such as this where a tractor trailer plows into a line of stopped vehicles, one of the key issues that we look into is the issue of driver fatigue.  Multiple studies have shown that fatigue can have the same effect on the ability of a truck driver to operate his vehicle safely as being intoxicated.  Due to this, federal regulations restrict the number of hours that a driver can be on duty before having to rest.  This information is recorded in a drivers log book which must be preserved for 6 months. 

One step that we take early on in an Illinois truck accident suit is to require the trucking company to preserve the drivers log book.  As experienced Chicago truck accident lawyers, we know that this is often crucial evidence for why one of these kind of truck accidents occurs.