Our Chicago, Illinois Truck Accident Lawyers Want to Caution Truckers Not to Watch Porn or Any Other Programs While Driving
Police claim that big rig trucker Thomas Wallace was watching porn on his laptop when he fatally hit a disabled vehicle on the road. The truck crash killed Julie Stratton, the vehicle’s 33-year-old driver.
Wallace has been arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. Investigators claim that the truck driver disregarded federal trucking regulations when he didn’t get more than fours sleep before the truck collision happened.
Distracted Driving
While distracted driving is a dangerous habit for any driver to engage, it can lead to especially catastrophic consequences when the offending motorist is a large truck driver. Large trucks generally weigh thousands of pounds and a collision with one of these vehicles can prove catastrophic. This is why truckers must stay focused on what they are doing. They cannot afford to talk on the cell phone, text message, watch TV, surf the Web, send and receive emails, or do anything that removes even just a small amount of focus from the road and the vehicles and pedestrians around them. Distracted driving can be grounds for a Chicago, Illinois truck accident lawsuit if this negligent driving habit contributed to causing a collision.
It is so important that truckers are well-rested before they start their driving shift that the federal government has regulations in place to make sure they have time to get enough sleep and recuperate from their long shifts. Truck drivers are also only allowed to drive for a certain number of hours at a time.
Unfortunately, there continue to be many exhausted, drowsy, and distracted truckers on the road. Having a sleeping truck driver behind the steering wheel of a tractor-trailer, a semi-truck, or an 18-wheeler truck is like having a large, dangerous, moving vehicle on the road with no one driving it.
Thomas Wallace, Truck Driver, Was Watching Porn On Laptop Before Killing Julie Stratton In Crash: Police, The Huffington Post, January 27, 2010
Mom of two mowed down by trucker watching porn on laptop: cops, NY Daily News, January 27, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Distracted Driving, US Department of Transportation
