Florida Injury Attorney Blog

A semi truck hauling a load of lumber struck another vehicle and then overturned off of I-95 in St. Augustine, Florida yesterday according to an article on News4Jax.com. Apparently, one person involved in the crash was injured and taken to the hospital.

When semi trucks are moving at highway speeds, they present a unique hazard to other vehicles on the road. Semi truck drivers have to be extra careful on the roads due to the tremendous damage they can do with their vehicles and the fact that it is more difficult to drive a tractor trailer than a regular passenger vehicle. Tractor trailers have much different stopping distances so drivers must be alert and begin the braking process well in advance of any vehicles stopped ahead of them. Additionally, when the semi trucks are carrying full loads, they are more difficult to stop and maneuver. This is due to the weight of the load, how the load is stored in the trailer and the fact that loads shift during travel. If the semi trucks turn or brake too quickly, they can overturn much more easily than regular trucks which creates an additional risk of an accident and a greater hazard if the load they are carrying spills out onto the road.

Every so often, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will focus on a particular violation of the regulations designed to keep the roads safe and prevent accidents involving massive tractor trailers and serious injuries or deaths. Some of the more important regulations deal with bus and semi truck drivers who have a history of drug or alcohol abuse or are under the influence of drugs or alcohol while driving a bus or semi truck.

Recently, the FMCSA targeted bus and semi truck drivers who may be driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. During a two week period, the alcohol and drug strike froce removed 109 bus and truck drivers from the roads for alcohol or drug violations. In addition, 175 bus and trucking companies were penalized for drug and alcohol violations. FMCSA employees reviewed the drug and alcohol records of bus and tractor trailer drivers, including school bus drivers and truck drivers carrying hazardous materials. The goal was to remove drivers and penalize bus and trucking company who violated federal drug and alcohol reporting requirements and other regulations. For instance if a semi truck driver has a history of a positive drug or alcohol test, the semi truck driver and the trucking company may be penalized. If either one failed to report a positive drug or alcohol test, that could also result in a violation. Bus and trucking companies are also supposed to maintain drug and alcohol testing programs and procedures. Failure to do should result in a violation.

The federal regulations clearly require bus and trucking companies to determine whether their drivers are unsafe due to an alcohol or drug problem or a history of positive tests. The regulations also require bus and semi truck drivers to submit to a drug and alcohol test as soon as possible after a serious accident. It is good to know the FMCSA is looking into these issues, but the number of violations here in a relatively short period is not too comforting.

When a trucking company hires someone to drive a commercial motor vehicle, i.e. a semi truck or tractor trailer, the trucking company should give that prospective employee a drug and alcohol test. Additionally, any time a semi truck driver causes or contributes to an accident that results in an injury to someone else or property damage, the semi truck driver is supposed to submit to a drug and alcohol test as soon as practicable according to the rules and regulations that govern semi truck drivers and trucking companies. Unfortunately, these important rules are not enforced very well, and many semi truck drivers are able to avoid taking the post-accident drug and alcohol tests without punishment. The government has discussed doing more to enforce these rules and otherwise make sure that drivers with a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse are not employed as semi truck drivers.

Recently, the Federal Department of Transportation (FDOT) has amended the rules dealing with drug tests of tractor trailer drivers. The new rules basically add certain drugs to the list of drugs screened during a pre-employment, post-accident or other drug test. With the rule changes, amphetamine-type drugs such as MDMA (ecstasy), MDA and MDEA will now be screened as well as an indicator for heroin use. The rules also lower the threshold for a positive drug tests for cocaine and amphetamines.

There are rules that are designed to prevent drug and alcohol abusers from driving semi trucks on the roads. However, the rules are not ideal, and they are often ignored due to lackadaisical enforcement and weak penalties. Any rule changes that will serve to prevent drug and alcohol abusers from obtaining jobs as commercial motor vehicle drivers are welcome.

A van driving along I-95 crashed into a semi truck that was parked on the side of the interstate, resulting in one death and several serious injuries in Woodbine, Camden County, Georgia, according to an article on News4Jax.com. The article indicates that eight people were riding in the van on I-95 in south Georgia when it crashed into the tractor trailer. It was not clear from the article why the crash occurred.

As personal injury and wrongful death lawyers, we see a variety of different accidents involving semi trucks. Many of them are serious like this one. When tractor trailers are stopped on the side of the road, they can be a serious hazard to other drivers. For that reason, semi truck drivers must make sure their vehicles and trailers are well off of the road, particularly when stopping along a busy road like I-95. Semi truck drivers should also make sure their vehicles and trailers are clearly marked so other drivers can see them stopped and make sure their path is clear. Even in the daytime, the large trailers can be difficult to see from a distance against a light blue or gray background. Those trailers should be well marked with bright orange or similarly colored markings to alert other drivers to their location. At night, it is important for semi truck drivers to put down fluorescent markings so drivers can see the hazard well in advance.

Because semi trucks pose a particularly serious hazard to other drivers on the road, they need to be clearly marked so other drivers can see them ahead of time so when a tractor trailer driver has slowed, stalled or stopped in or close to the road, other drivers can make adjustments to get out of their way. When semi truck drivers do not take the necessary efforts to make their vehicles and trailers conspicuous, serious accidents like these result.

As personal injury and wrongful death lawyers, we have seen many accident cases where the serious accident was caused by a truck driver who was under the influence of alcohol or drugs,. The regulations governing semi truck drivers and trucking companies require trucking companies to have potential commercial truck drivers submit to drug tests before they start driving. They also require semi truck drivers to immediately get a drug and alcohol test after causing an accident that results in injuries and/or property damage.

Unfortunately, these regulations are not enforced very well, and many trucking companies do not force their drivers to get the post-accident drug and alcohol tests. Likewise, many truck drivers do not get them on their own. Additionally, there are many reports of fraud with the tests that result in unreliable results.

According to a recent article, a commercial pilot was selling a powder drink mix that would mask the results of a drug test. He was marketing it towards pilots, semi truck drivers and truck engineers, all of whom are required to take drug tests since they have very safety-sensitive jobs. Fortunately, the person selling these drug testing masking kits to pilots and truck drivers was arrested and prosecuted. According to prosecutors, the product worked. Other similar products are on the market and have been the subject of other federal criminal cases.

With today's fairly lax enforcement mechanisms, it is troubling to read a story that provides semi truck drivers and people in similar positions with the means to falsify critical drug tests. The drug tests are particularly important for semi truck drivers when they are required after an accident that causes an injury. If a semi truck driver causes an injury accident while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the employer (and other potential employers) must be made aware of that fact so the semi truck driver can be prohibited from driving a semi truck and doing the same thing again. Law enforcement officials and personal injury and wrongful death lawyers must also have access to reliable drug test results so the semi truck driver can be properly held accountable for the accident and injuries and/or deaths caused by the accident.

Florida is one of the most well traveled states in the country with interstate highways that can take you all the way across the country going north or west. As a result, there are a tremendous number of semi trucks on the roads of Florida at all times. Not all of the semi truck drivers are safe, and not all of the tractor trailers themselves are safe.

The semi trucks and trailers are supposed to be thoroughly inspected by the semi truck drivers before and after each trip. Unfortunately, because many of these semi truck drivers get paid by the mile, they do not take the time to conduct thorough inspections. Department of Transportation officials will also inspect semi trucks at various checkpoints along the road and other times. Sometimes, state agencies make a special effort to check semi trucks to see how many are in violation of various trucking regulations. As one might expect, many of these semi trucks and drivers fail these random inspections.

In a recent effort by different states to check the safety and compliance of the semi trucks in their states, officials found that many of the semi trucks they checked were in violation of the various safety regulations. Almost 30% of the violations for the over 1,000 semi trucks inspected were out of service violations. This means that the safety violation was so serious, the tractor trailer and/or truck driver had to be placed out of service, i.e. taken off of the road until the violation was corrected, if possible. In all, after the inspections which spanned four states, almost 7% of the semi truck drivers were so unfit to drive that they had to be removed from the road and more than 13% of the semi trucks had to be taken off of the road.

Numbers like these are pretty scary to those of us who share the roads with these semi trucks and truck drivers. Serious injury and fatal accidents happen frequently enough with normal drivers who do something careless while driving. When you add dangerously unsafe semi truck drivers and semi trucks to the roads in significant quantities, the risk of serious accidents increases.

According to a new regulation from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that will go into effect in 2012, certain trucking companies will be required to install electronic on board recorders on their commercial tractor trailers. The regulation will require those trucking companies that have a 10% or higher hours of service violation rate to install the devices. Hours of service rules limit the number of hours semi truck drivers can be driving and/or on duty before they must take a break. Semi truck drivers are required to log their time driving, on duty and off duty so it can be determine whether or not they are complying with the hours of service regulations. The idea is that semi truck drivers who drive over hours become fatigued which leads to serious injury and fatal accidents. Trucking companies with more hours of service violations also tend to be involved in more serious accidents.

Electronic devices that can be installed on semi trucks and other vehicles can record a variety of data about the vehicle. They can also provide important information after a crash that can allow personal injury and wrongful death lawyers to determine how a crash occurred and learn important information about the time period leading up to the crash. According to the new regulation, the required electronic on board recorders will record, among other things, date, time, location and distance traveled. This information is very helpful in determining when, where and how long a semi truck driver has been driving and whether he/she is following the hours of service rules. Without the electronic on board recorders, one has to rely on the manually written log books of the drivers to determine these facts. As you might expect, these logs are often not done or done inaccurately, either intentionally or unintentionally. When dealing with people who typically get paid more the more they drive, you can expect that they may not always be compliant with rules that limit their driving time. This is particularly true after a serious accident when they know DOT officials and personal injury/wrongful death lawyers will be looking closely at their records and driving history to determine why the accident occurred.

We have discussed on multiple occasions the dangers associated with people who are driving and using their text messaging devices at the same time. One study we saw compared the danger of driving while texting with driving under the influence of alcohol. In some respects, driving while texting would seem more dangerous than a person who is driving while being just over the legal limit. If I had to choose, I think I would prefer someone who has had a couple of drinks and is just over the legal limit of 0.08 but has his/her eyes on the road driving a normal passenger vehicle to a truck driver operating a 70,000 pound fully loaded tractor trailer who is looking down at his/her cell phone for 30 seconds going 65 miles per hour. Obviously, neither is ideal, but the risk of serious damage in the second instance is tremendous.

In any case, state and federal government agencies have recognized the danger of driving while texting, although after many serious accidents caused by the practice. As a result, the federal government is proposing to make penalties for semi truck drivers who drive while texting more severe. The proposal would provide for a fine up to $2,750 for all offenses and a 60 day suspension for anyone caught doing it a second time within three years. A third offense within three years would result in a 120 day suspension. We think these kinds of punishments are a start, but when one considers how extremely dangerous it is for these semi truck drivers to take their focus off of the road for significant periods of time to send and receive text messages, more should be done to prevent them from doing so.

One issue that arises in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits resulting from truck accidents is a truck driver who is unqualified to safely operate a semi truck and a trucking company that did not perform the proper background check to prevent that driver from being on the road. Personal injury and wrongful death lawyers can investigate the truck driver during the lawsuit and find out a variety of negative facts about the truck driver that should have prevented the trucking company from hiring him/her to drive a tractor trailer in the first place. However, trucking company employees often plead ignorance and say they did not know those things about the truck driver that would have caused any responsible trucking company to reject the driver's job application.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been working to make it easier for trucking companies to investigate truck driver applicants. A database has been prepared that contains information about a semi truck driver's accident history and inspection history. With the database, a trucking company can screen a truck driver applicant to see if he/she has been involved in multiple accidents and/or has a history of failed DOT inspections. The rules do not require trucking companies to participate in the program and check the database, but it is hard to imagine that trucking company employees will have good answers as to why they did not screen truck driver applicants in a deposition during a lawsuit after a bad driver causes a serious injury accident. Failure to screen a truck driver with a history of accidents and/or failed inspections would seem to be pretty clear negligence on the part of a trucking company after a serious accident and could lead to the trucking company paying significant damages to a plaintiff who has been injured by an unsafe truck driver.

The latest news about the database does not indicate whether past, failed drug and/or alcohol tests will be included in the database information. If not, this is important information that any trucking company should investigate and know prior to hiring anyone for a semi truck driving position.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which regulates semi truck drivers and bus drivers, has issued a regulation making it illegal for semi truck and bus drivers to text while driving a commercial motor vehicle. The FMCSA noted that texting takes a driver's eyes off of the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 65 miles per hour, a tractor trailer or other vehicle would travel approximately 146 yards in those 4.6 seconds the driver is looking at his/her cell phone or other mobile communication device. That is almost a football field and a half.

Because driving while texting is so dangerous and contributes to very serious accidents, particularly when a semi truck is involved, the FMCSA has made it illegal to drive while texting. But what exactly is included in the word "texting"? For semi truck drivers, texting includes not just sending text messages but also preparing text messages and reviewing text messages. Basically if a law enforcement officer sees a driver doing anything with a cell phone or similar device other than talking into it, that semi truck or bus driver can expect to get a ticket for texting while driving.

The Department of Transportation (DOT), which regulates the trucking industry in an effort to prevent serious accidents involving semi trucks, issues a variety of safety regulations. Some of the regulations deal with drug and alcohol testing as one obvious goal of the DOT is to make sure truck drivers are sober and people with drug and/or alcohol problems are not employed as semi truck drivers.

The current regulations require trucking companies to test prospective tractor trailer drivers for drugs and alcohol before they are put out on the roads. The regulations also require semi truck drivers who have been in serious accidents where they have been cited to go to a drug and alcohol testing facility as soon as possible after the accident to be tested. While these regulations are a good idea, unfortunately, they are not very strictly enforced by anyone.

In an effort to make the safety regulations more effective in preventing serious accidents and weeding out bad semi truck drivers, the DOT has proposed new, tougher regulations. They include expanding drug testing to look for ecstasy or MDMA; expand initial drug testing to look for heroin and lower the cutoff levels for the cocaine and methamphetamine tests.

A woman crashed into a tow truck that was clearing vehicles from a prior accident on the Mathews Bridge in Jacksonville, Florida and was seriously injured according to an article on News4Jax.com. It is not exactly clear how the accident occurred, but presumably, the tow truck was stopped in one of the lanes on the bridge and the woman's car crashed into it while it was involved in clearing the previous accident.

Normally, an accident where a moving vehicle strikes a stopped vehicle, often from behind, is the fault of the driver of the moving vehicle. However, that is not always the case. When tractor trailers and other trucks are stopped on the road, they are supposed to alert other drivers that they are stopped well in advance of their location. This is particularly true at night or on roadways that have curves or inclines because drivers do not normally expect vehicles to be stopped on the roads and need time to react, especially on higher speed limit roads. If there are any visibility problems in the area, a perfectly alert driver may crash into a stopped vehicle because he/she did not have enough time to see the stopped vehicle and react. This occurs fairly often on the highway or other rural roads with high speed limits and average or poor lighting when semi trucks stall on, or partially on, the road and the driver fails to set up flares or reflectors alerting other drivers of their location. Semi trucks and trailers are very difficult to see at night and can be very dangerous if stopped on the roadway without proper markings.

When personal injury and wrongful death attorneys represent clients in cases involving a vehicle running into a stopped truck or other vehicle, it is important to look at exactly where and how the vehicle was stopped, under what conditions the crash occurred and what the driver of the stopped vehicle did or did not do to alert other drivers.

Traffic laws making it a violation to use a text messaging or similar mobile communication device while driving are becoming more populart across the country and closer to a reality in Florida according to recent articles. It is illegal to drive while using a text messaging device in some capacity in at least 19 states and more and more are considering the law. Driving while texting is not yet illegal in Florida, but many expect such a law to pass in Florida in the near future.

Even more dangerous than people driving cars and sending or receioving text messages is people driving semi trucks while sending and receiving text messages. The Department of Transportation has recently announced a new regulation that prohibits commercial truck drivers and bus drivers from driving while using a text messaging device or a handheld cell phone. This is an important regulation that will hopefully prevent people driving the most dangerous vehicles on the road from being distracted by mobile communication devices.

One of the main safety issues regarding semi truck drivers is the number of hours they drive and work without taking a break. There have been many studies and articles dealing with the serious danger and increased risk of serious traffic accidents caused by fatigued tractor trailer drivers who have driven way too many hours. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the agency charged with regulating the trucking industry to make it safer and try to prevent big truck accidents. There are regulations in place which limit the number of hours a semi truck driver can drive and/or work before he/she is required to take a break from driving. The problem with these regulations is that they are difficult to enforce. They are basically self-regulating. Semi truck drivers are supposed to fill out log sheets which show the number of hours spent each day driving, otherwise working and off-duty. Department of Transportation and trucking company officials are supposed to be able to review those logs and see if a semi truck driver has been driving over hours and is at risk of driving while fatigued. However, if the semi truck driver falsifies his/her hours or just fails to complete the log sheet, there is little recourse. Additionally, it is then very difficult, if not impossible, to tell whether a truck driver is driving over hours.

However, there are electronic devices that can be installed onto the tractor trailer that can monitor and record driving hours automatically without relying on a semi truck driver's input. These electronic on board recorders (EOBR) can monitor the exact number of hours and miles a semi truck and driver are driving, along with many other data. There is a rule being proposed by the FMCSA which would encourage voluntary installation of the EOBR's for every semi truck driver and make them mandatory for two years for all semi truck drivers who have a history of inaccurate or improper hours of service records.

Because serious traffic accidents caused by semi truck drivers who have driven too long in violation of federal regulations and are fatigued is a serious problem, any rule which establishes an independent method of recording the number of hours semi truck drivers are on the roads and help enforces the hours of service regulations is a good idea.

Two semi trucks were involved in a serious accident on I-95 in Flagler County, Florida (which is about an hour south of Jacksonville, Florida), according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. We write often about the duties and obligations of tractor trailer drivers that go above and beyond those of regular cars and trucks and the safety issues that arise when semit truck drivers do not follows the safety regulations. In this traffic crash, one semi truck driver had pulled over on the side of I-95 due to a malfunction with the vehicle early Tuesday morning while it was still dark, according to the article. However, when that semi truck driver pulled back onto I-95, he did so in front of another semi truck being driven by Julio Rentas, who was killed in the crash.

Semi truck drivers are not only charged with driving safely while on the roads but making sure they are safe when they have to make stops. A semi truck pulling back into the road in the early morning hours can pose as much of a danger to other vehicles as any other time while driving at highway speeds. Some questions to look at in this situation are whether the semi truck that pulled into the road was properly marked so other drivers could see it in the darkness. Tractor trailers, especially the trailers, can be very difficult for other drivers to see if not marked properly. Additionally, because semi trucks take longer to build speed, they must have more space before they can pull out from a stopped position on the side of the road. How much space did this semi truck driver have before pulling out in front of Mr. Rentas? The article suggests that the answer may be: not enough. Additionally, what was the malfunction that caused the semi truck driver to stop in the first place? If it was something that could and should have been resolved during the pre-trip check of the vehicle, this accident may have been completely avoidable.

There are specific rules and regulations in place designed to prevent serious injury and fatal accidents involving semi truck drivers with drug and/or alcohol problems. Before a trucking company hires a truck driver and sends him/her out on the road, that company must make sure the truck driver has been drug tested. The trucking company is also obligated to investigate whether the truck driver has a drug or alcohol problem or has ever tested positive for a prior drug or alcohol test.

Unfortunately, many trucking companies do not comply with this safety requirement and hire suspect tractor trailer drivers without performing the proper background checks. As a result, unsafe semi truck drivers and semi truck drivers with a propensity to use drugs and/or alcohol are out on the roads driving 70,000 pound tractor trailers and at risk of causing serious traffic accidents.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) which administers safety regulations that govern the trucking industry and try to prevent serious traffic crashes involving semi trucks has stepped up enforcement against truck drivers with histories of drug and/or alcohol use and the trucking companies who are hiring them. In a recent ten day period, the FMCSA found that more than 80 trucking companies were involved in some sort of violation involving safety records relating to drug and alcohol use. Almost 80 commercial drivers were taken out of service for some period of time related to drug and/or alcohol safety violations.

It is scary to think that there are so many semi truck drivers on the roads with histories of drug and/or alcohol problems. It is also scary to think that in addition to the many other safety violations that are common among semi truck drivers and trucking companies, safety violations relating to drug and/or alcohol use are so prevalent with trucking companies failing to even check into the background of the truck drivers they hire.

Semi truck drivers are often paid by the mile and have strong incentives to get their shipment to its destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, this can result in serious dangers to other drivers on the road when a semi truck driver takes a route that is not suitable for the semi truck. For instance, some roads are too narrow and restricted to semi truck drivers. Other roads have overpasses that are too low creating a serious risk if a tractor trailer driver ignores a road sign telling them the route is restricted and drives on that road anyway.

With the increasing popularity of GPS devices, more semi truck drivers are taking the shortest routes and ignoring road signs which show certain roads are restricted to the big trucks. As a result, there has been an increase in accidents involving semi trucks, particularly those crashes caused by tractor trailers crashing into a lower overpass. Obviously, if a semi truck is driving at a normal speed and crashes into an overpass, the risk of injuries to other drivers on the road is significant. That risk is compounded for semi truck drivers that are carrying hazardous materials or other dangerous cargo.

If a semi truck driver crashes into an overpass, it seems almost irrefutable that any injuries that result are caused by the negligence of that semi truck driver in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. If it turns out that the semi truck driver was using a GPS device that directed him to a quicker, but unsafe, route and he/she ignored any road signs telling him/her to avoid that road, an argument could be made that the semi truck driver was being reckless and punitive damages should be awarded to the injured parties.

When a trucking company evaluates an applicant for the position of tractor trailer driver, there are many things that company is supposed to do to verify that the truck driver is qualified to safely operate a large tractor trailer. One of the things the trucking company is supposed to do is check that applicants driving and accident history. Obviously, if the applicant has a significant history of traffic tickets or accidents, he/she should not be hired to drive a semi truck.

Unfortunately, many trucking companies fail to do the proper background check and hire truck drivers with poor driving and traffic crash histories. It is only after a serious accident when we, as personal injury and wrongful death lawyers, investigate the trucking company's records and question the truck driver and trucking company employees, when we find out that the trucking company did not perform the proper background check and hired a truck driver that was a dangerous risk to other drivers on the roads.

Other times, the trucking company makes some effort to determine a potential truck driver's driving record and traffic accident history but is unable to get complete and accurate information. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will soon be offering electronic access to a truck driver's crash records and inspection reports. This will allow diligent trucking companies to more easily find out what kind of, and how many, traffic accidents a particular truck driver applicant has had. It will also allow the trucking company to view inspection reports to see if a truck driver has had a large number of safety violations.

Hopefully, with the new system, responsible trucking companies will have better access to the safety information they are looking for and less responsible trucking companies who do not make an effort to obtain that information and hire unsafe truck drivers will be more easily held accountable for serious injury accidents that are caused by truck drivers who should have never been hired.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the government agency charged with reducing the number of traffic accidents that involve semi trucks and result in serious injuries or deaths. There are many regulations designed to serve that purpose and make sure semi truck drivers are properly trained and experienced and safe to operate large vehicles. The agency is supposed to monitor trucking companies and truck drivers to make sure the drivers are not driving over the permitted number of hours. Truck drivers who violate these hours of service rules pose serious safety risks to other drivers because they become fatigued. Studies have shown that fatigued truck drivers can be as likely to cause a serious accident as a driver impaired by alcohol.

The FMCSA is starting a new initiative that will help identify trucking companies and truck drivers that are not complying with the safety regulations and are at greater risk of causing serious accidents. The FMCSA is supposed to audit trucking companies, but rarely do because their resources are limited. Driving over hours and while fatigued is a serious problem among truck drivers. There are rules regarding how many hours a person can drive without taking a break. However, this is largely self-regulated by time logs that the truck drivers fill out themselves. If those logs are not properly audited and compared with other records, a truck driver can falsify his/her hours and drive while fatigued without any recourse. Many truck drivers get paid by the mile and are strongly encouraged to be at their destination on time. These facts provide an incentive for truck drivers to drive as much as possible and ignore hours of service rules and signs of fatigue. The trucking industry could use a more active agency that enforces the regulations to try and avoid serious injury and fatal accidents.

Drivers who are distracted because they are talking on their cell phones, sending or receiving text messages or using other cell phone applications have received a lot of publicity. Distracted driving has been found to be the cause of a lot of serious accidents resulting in injuries and death.

In Jacksonville, Florida, it is becoming increasingly common to look over at a driver and see him/her concentrating on a cell phone rather than the road and other vehicles. But many people may not be aware that semi truck drivers may be distracted by something else. Many semi trucks have on-board computers right next to the driver's seat. These computers provide directions for the semi truck drivers and allow them to communicate with dispatchers and others. According to one truck driver interviewed for an article on NYTimes.com, semi truck drivers are told to pull over before using the computer, but they never do. I expect that is true. Most semi truck drivers get paid by the mile, and they often have to meet tight schedules. That kind of compensation structure does not encourage a truck driver to pull over every time he/she wants to use the computer to get directions or send or receive a message.

But the risk of using on-board computers is serious. According to one study, semi truck drivers who use the on-board computers have a 10% greater risk of crashing, nearly crashing or wandering from their lane as opposed to those truck drivers who do not have the computers in their vehicles. The study found that when a truck driver is using the on-board computer, he/she look away from the road for an average of 4 seconds. If that truck driver is driving on the highway, that truck can travel the space of a full football field before the driver's eyes get back to the road.

When you consider the significant potential for damage and injuries when a huge tractor trailer causes an accident on the highway, anything that distracts the driver and increases the risk of an accident must be examined for its legality.