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Fatigue is one of the most common contributing factors in serious commercial truck crashes, and federal regulators have addressed it with detailed limits on driving and working time.
For an injured person, hours of service rules are useful for a specific reason: they convert ‘the driver was probably tired’ into a documented, provable violation of a federal standard.
The evidence lives with the trucking company, and it does not last forever.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations set limits for property-carrying drivers including a maximum driving window after coming on duty, a maximum total driving time within that window, a required rest break during long driving periods, and weekly on-duty caps over rolling multi-day periods.
Specific figures have been amended over the years, so the version in force at the time of the crash governs. That is a detail worth confirming rather than assuming.
The rules also distinguish driving time from on-duty non-driving time — loading, inspections, waiting — which is where a lot of violations actually occur.
Most commercial vehicles are required to use electronic logging devices, which record driving time automatically and are far harder to falsify than the old paper logs.
ELD data is generally cross-checked against other records — fuel receipts, weigh station records, delivery timestamps, toll data, and GPS. Discrepancies between the log and the paper trail are often where a case is made.
All of it sits with the motor carrier and is subject to retention schedules. Some categories are kept for months, others less, which is why a preservation demand in the first days matters more here than in almost any other claim type.
A violation of a safety regulation can support a finding of negligence per se — negligence established by the breach of a standard designed to prevent exactly this kind of harm.
It also opens claims against the carrier itself rather than only the driver. A carrier whose scheduling made compliance impossible, or which ignored violations in its own records, faces exposure for its own conduct.
Where violations were systematic rather than isolated, that pattern can support punitive damages in appropriate cases.
Move fast. The single most valuable early step in a truck case is usually a spoliation letter demanding that the carrier preserve ELD data, driver logs, dispatch records, and related documents.
Capture identifying details at the scene where possible — the tractor and trailer numbers, the carrier name, and the USDOT number — because those identify who the demand must reach.
See our FAQ on when to consult a lawyer after a truck accident for why the timeline is so much tighter than a car crash.
Federal rules cap driving time within a daily window and impose weekly on-duty limits, with a required break during long driving periods. The specific figures have been amended over time, so the rules in force at the date of the crash are what apply.
Primarily through electronic logging device data, cross-checked against fuel receipts, toll and GPS records, weigh station data and delivery timestamps. Discrepancies between the logs and the paper trail are often where violations surface.
Destroying evidence after a preservation demand can amount to spoliation, which carries its own consequences and can result in adverse inferences. That is precisely why the demand should go out within days.
Not automatically, but it is strong evidence. A breach of a safety regulation designed to prevent this kind of harm can support negligence per se, and can open claims against the carrier for its own scheduling and supervision.
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