Truck causes chain collision in Wisconsin

A truck was the cause of a recent fatal chain collision in near Green Bay, Wisconsin.  A number of cars had slowed for an accident ahead when the last car was hit from behind by a tractor trailer, pushing the cars ahead into one another.  There was one fatality and six serious injuries from the truck crash.

It seems that once a week or so, there is a story in the news about a truck driver plowing into a line of cars that had stopped or were slowing for traffic conditions ahead.  When this happens, this raises questions about the actions of the truck driver not just in the moments before the crash, but in the days before.

Many studies have established that fatigue is a serious impairment to the ability to operate a tractor trailer safely.  Some studies have shown that it has the same adverse effect on a truck driver's driving abilities as being intoxicated.  To combat fatigue, there are regulations in place which limit the number of hours that a truck driver can work and be behind the wheel of a tractor trailer.  Enforcement of the hours of service regulations is monitored through the driver's log book, which records the activities of the driver.  Unfortunately, log books are frequently falsified by truck drivers so that they can keep working to meet company-imposed delivery deadlines.

We do not know whether this truck driver was running over hours when he caused this chain collision, but as an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer, this would certainly be one avenue of inquiry.  After all, everyone else could stop for the accident ahead, why couldn't this driver? 

Trucking companies are required to maintain driver logs for only 6 months, so one step we take early in our trucking accident cases is to request that the driver logs be preserved for later use in the wrongful death lawsuit that would follow a truck crash like this.