Driving a normal-sized vehicle under the influence of drugs and or alcohol is not a good idea. That idea becomes exponentially worse when the vehicle being driven is 80,000 pounds and prone to tipping. Drug and alcohol abuse is actually a widespread problem among truck drivers across the United States. They use the drugs, particularly stimulants, to help them push through a shift and get extra hours and miles. Sometimes they're used to help a driver get a shipment somewhere earlier than expected. There are numerous reasons for these substances but they all reduce a driver's ability to transport goods safely.
Drug abuse mainly falls into two categories. A person generally is using either marijuana or methamphetamines.
Marijuana
Many people in the United States, not just truck drivers, believe that driving after smoking a joint makes them a more effective driver. This is, quite frankly, a ridiculous claim. Smoking a joint affects an individual's ability to concentrate, their perception, and their reaction time up to 24 hours after the single joint is smoked. That gives a joint a much longer period of effects than drinking a single alcoholic beverage does. The National Transportation Board found that 12.5% of all fatal truck accidents had marijuana involved.
Methamphetamines
Truck drivers across the country are always looking for ways to beat the system. The system here is a set of federal regulations that dictate how many hours in a day a truck driver can work. Truck drivers, in many cases, want to drive more hours in a day or put more miles behind them in a single day in order to gain an advantage and deliver their cargo to its destination a bit earlier.
Because of this desire, truck drivers often turn to methamphetamines because they fall under the class of stimulants. Stimulants will keep you up at night, like coffee which has caffeine in it. This allows the truck drivers to work for just a little bit longer without falling asleep.
This problem is so widespread that in a recent survey of 20 truck drivers, 17 of the 20 said that methamphetamines were easy to procure at any truck stop. That is 85% of the truck drivers surveyed. The national average probably wouldn't be that high but no one really knows.
Alcohol Abuse
The other area of substance abuse for truck drivers involves alcohol. This problem is just as common among truck drivers as it is among ordinary drivers, if not more so. Truck drivers have higher penalties for drunk driving and the lower allowable BAC, (.04 to .08), 1-3% of all truck accidents involve an alcohol impaired driver. This number used to be much higher but has come down recently thanks to harsh enforcement and elevated penalties. 1-3% still amounts to 46 and 140 fatal truck accidents that result from alcohol impairment.
A driver does not have to be legally drunk for their driving ability to be impaired. Even with a low-level BAC, alcohol will still slow a driver's reaction time and affect their reflexes. Because the Federal government recognizes that trucks are a greater threat to the well-being of others, Federal regulations prohibit commercial truck drivers from operating their vehicles with a BAC greater than .04. This amounts to half the legal limit for ordinary drivers.
Joseph Devine
If you would like more information concerning truck accidents, contact the truck accident lawyers of Williams Kherkher at 1-866-950-9000 or via their website, http://www.truckaccident-lawyers.com. Their team will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have concerning any element of truck accidents.
No comments:
Post a Comment