Hours of Service Violations by Truckers: Understanding the Rules

There is no question that driving heavy commercial trucks for a living is very demanding. Drivers want to make ends meet and provide for their families. They may get paid more under certain circumstances by delivering their load as quickly as possible or by covering as many miles as possible.

The problem is, these practices encourage drivers to drive much longer than a driver should safely and reasonably drive. After long periods of driving, there is no question that fatigue sets in, drivers are not as fresh, and crashes are much more likely to occur.

The Problem with Fatigued Drivers

Driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of truck accidents in America. When a commercial truck driver is exhausted after driving too many hours without adequate rest, their reaction time slows, their judgment becomes impaired, and they’re significantly more likely to be fatigued, sleepy, or to fall asleep while driving. And drowsing while driving, even for just a few seconds, can cause devastating crashes.

The federal government knows this. To fight this problem, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has established strict Hours of Service (HOS) regulations that limit how long truck drivers can operate their vehicles. Those regulations restrict how much time a driver can work in drive in one shift and it also limits driving and work time over the course of a week. The regulations also mandate specific rest periods. These regulations are designed to prevent fatigue-related accidents and save lives.

Video Transcript: Hours of Service Violations – How Fatigued Truck Drivers Cause Deadly Crashes

Watch as Virginia’s only board-certified truck accident attorney explains federal hours of service regulations, why violations occur despite clear rules, and how fatigued driving can be as dangerous as drunk driving.

Click to Read Full Video Transcript

The Deadly Danger of Driver Fatigue

There’s really nothing on the highways that’s more dangerous than a driver of an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer falling asleep while driving at highway speeds.

If you’ve been injured or had a family member killed in a tractor-trailer crash, there is a decent possibility that driver fatigue played a role in that horrific situation.

Federal law strictly limits how long a truck driver can drive before they must stop and rest. These are what are called hours of service requirements and they’re very specific and they are established by federal law. And that’s because drivers that don’t follow hours of service requirements can get fatigued, and fatigued drivers can be every bit as dangerous as a drunk driver.

Hi, I’m Bob Byrne. I am Virginia’s first and only board-certified attorney in truck accident law. And today I want to talk about the hours of service requirements that govern all truck drivers who are on the interstates. We’ll talk briefly about why these rules exist, what they are, and how violations can lead to deadly crashes.

Why Driver Fatigue Matters So Much

So, let’s start with why this matters so much. Driver fatigue isn’t just a little problem. It’s a problem that exists that unfortunately causes a lot of crashes, causes terrible injuries, and even deaths.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, driver fatigue can be related to as many as 13% of all truck crashes that happen on the roads today.

The Real Number Is Likely Much Higher:

But here’s something to keep in mind. That 13% is probably massively underreported or undercounted. And the reason why is—again looking at the drunk driving example—drunk drivers can generally be identified based on the blood alcohol content tests that law enforcement will apply in any case.

But with fatigued drivers, that same evidence doesn’t exist. So unless a driver admits or there’s direct video evidence of the fact that they were sleeping or falling asleep, then these are likely to be underreported.

Industry Pushback:

The National Transportation Safety Board has recognized that fatigued truck drivers are one of the leading dangers on the roads today. And certain groups like that have been pushing hard for stricter rules about fatigue and about hours of service.

But the trucking industry has pushed back. And so we do find ourselves in this situation where when fatigue appears to play a role, oftentimes the only way to pursue that is through the courts in a personal injury or a wrongful death action.

How Fatigue Impairs Truck Drivers

And here’s why fatigue can be such a big problem:

• It can slow reaction time
• It can impair judgment
• It can impact someone’s senses and their abilities to react to what they see
• It can reduce attention and awareness
• And there could be micro sleeps where someone is dozing off

And during that time they’re continuing to go down the highway at highway speeds. And that’s scary when you think about the fact that a truck that is driving highway speeds may go as many as 100 feet in one second. And there’s a lot of things that can happen in 100 feet.

And when you think that micro sleeping or dozing may just be 3 seconds, during that time a truck can travel the entire length of a football field. And you can imagine what can happen during that time and distance.

So this is why hours of service regulations exist. It’s to make sure and to try to diminish and prevent crashes caused by fatigued drivers or drivers who do fall asleep.

The Hours of Service Regulations

So, let’s talk about what those hours of service regulations are. Here are some of the key rules.

The 11-Hour Driving Rule:

After 10 consecutive hours of off-duty work, a driver’s permitted to drive for 11 consecutive hours. Once they’ve driven the entire 11 hours, they have to stop and then take another 10 consecutive hours of rest.

This seems pretty simple, but violations can occur, especially when a driver thinks they can push just a little bit further to get to their destination or perhaps if they feel the need to make up time.

The 14-Hour On-Duty Window:

A second rule is the 14-hour on-duty window. And this is something that can complicate the 11-hour rule. What this says is that once a driver comes on duty, they have 14 hours in which they can complete their 11 hours of driving.

So, to give you an example, if a driver starts their shift at 8:00 a.m., they must complete their shift by 10:00 p.m., even if it means that they don’t get to drive 11 hours during that time.

The 30-Minute Break Requirement:

Another rule is the 30-minute break requirement. The 30-minute break requirement essentially says that after a driver’s been driving for eight hours, they have to stop and take a 30-minute break to kind of refresh themselves.

So this rule says that you can’t just jam 11 hours of driving in or just 14 hours of work. They do recognize that in there you do need to have an interruption for that 30-minute break.

The 60/70-Hour Weekly Limit:

Another rule that exists is the 60/70-hour weekly limit. So this says that a driver cannot drive after being on duty for 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days, depending on how the work week is computed by the employer.

So, a driver cannot drive after being on duty for 60 hours in seven consecutive days or for 70 hours in eight consecutive days, depending exactly on how the motor carrier or the employer kind of designates and how much driving they do. What I mean by that is whether the company drives vehicles every day of the week.

So once a driver reaches that 60 or 70 hour cutoff, they have to take 34 consecutive hours off duty with no driving.

The Sleeper Berth Provision:

Now there is some flexibility with some of these rules based on one provision called the sleeper berth provision. And so a driver can split up that 10 hours of required off-duty time, and they could spend at least seven hours of it in their sleeper berth and then two consecutive hours either in the sleeper berth or elsewhere.

This is meant to provide some flexibility for drivers, but as you can imagine, it also can open the door to some fudging and manipulation.

Now, these are the general rules that apply to most commercial truck drivers, especially the long-haul drivers of tractor-trailers. But there’s also specific rules that apply to different types of truck drivers in different types of operations.

Why Violations Occur Despite Clear Rules

So this brings us to our next point. So if these rules exist and they’re pretty clear, why do violations nevertheless occur?

The answer is pretty simple: money and pressure.

The Economic Pressure:

So trucking companies oftentimes work on pretty tight profit margins. They’re going to make money when their drivers are driving and delivering products from point A to point B. And if the drivers are not driving and deliveries are not being made, the trucking companies are not making money.

Now, this pressure that exists on the trucking company gets passed down to the driver. They want to make sure that the driver can get the cargo to the destination as quickly as possible. And oftentimes that means the motor carrier or the trucking company making promises about delivery that just don’t really comply with the hours of service requirements.

The Driver’s Dilemma:

So that puts drivers in a really bad position. If they want to get the job so that they can keep getting jobs and they can keep making money to feed their families, they’re going to go and accept a load even though they know that it may require them to violate the hours of service requirements, or alternatively to drive a whole lot faster than they should to be able to get to where they need to be in the allotted time.

The Detention Time Problem:

And this is where problems result because truck drivers have to do a lot of work that goes beyond just driving. They oftentimes have to deal with what’s called detention time. And detention time is when they show up to a facility to pick up their shipment and they have to wait.

There could be a number of reasons why the detention time and thus the non-driving time increases. And the problem is the regulations don’t account for the reality of detention time. And frankly, shippers and oftentimes the motor carriers that are doing the transportation don’t care.

And so that adds pressure to the truck drivers. And that of course creates an incentive for a driver to kind of fudge their records and their time records and their logs to show that they complied with all of the hours of service requirements.

Electronic Logging Devices: Solution or Workaround?

Now, one way that the federal government has tried to prevent hours of service manipulation and falsification is by having electronic logging devices installed in trucks.

So, as of 2017, most trucks were required to have electronic logging devices installed. It used to be the case that drivers would keep track kind of on the honor system and use paper logs to show when they’re driving, when they’re off duty, when they’re doing non-driving work. And of course, that could be falsified pretty easily.

With the electronic logs, it’s much, much harder to do that. But there are still some workarounds that some drivers will use, such as personal driving time. They could claim that they’re doing personal driving time when in reality they’re still driving professionally. And that’s taking advantage of what’s called the personal conveyance exception.

The 8-Day Window:

I did another video where I talked about the importance of acting quickly after a truck crash because this electronic data may exist for only 8 days. So check out the video about the first 48 hours after a truck crash if you want more information about that.

How We Prove Hours of Service Violations

We found that it’s always vitally important to get hours of service records in every trucking case we’re involved in. It’s oftentimes hard to tell if the hours of service records have been fudged just by looking at them.

Cross-Referencing Multiple Data Sources:

And instead, you have to have the hours of service records. You have to compare them to other documents such as:

• Emails
• Text messages
• Telematics system information like GPS coordinates
• And that type of data

When all of that information comes together, you get a complete picture of whether the driver’s telling the truth about where they were when they said they were, what they were doing, and whether they were complying with the hours of service regulations.

Working with Experts:

We oftentimes get this information and we share it with expert witnesses that we’re working with. And that could be industry experts, accident reconstructionists, vehicle inspectors, and others. And we use that information to try to build a case that the driver was fatigued and that the motor carrier, the trucking company knew about that.

Physical Evidence in the Truck:

And there have been times that we have found that an inspection of the truck can yield some very important information to suggest that the driver was in fact fatigued. You know, there could be lots of empty cans of Red Bull. There could be other stimulants that we see or residue or even some drugs that may show that the driver had those in his or her possession at the time of the crash.

Defeating the Sudden Medical Emergency Defense

Getting the hours of service data and showing that a driver was fatigued can be especially important because one of the main defenses that trucking companies use is what’s called the sudden medical emergency defense.

And so oftentimes you’ll see in a crash that a driver has inexplicably left the road and has headed in the opposite direction and entered the opposite lane of travel. And a trucking company will claim that the driver had no reason to believe that this was going to happen, that they had a medical event that was completely unforeseeable, that it happened to arise at that situation and at that time, and that there is nothing they can do to prevent it or take control of the vehicle during that time.

There’s a lot of things that go into defeating that sudden medical emergency defense, but one of the most important things is to look at the driver’s log and their records to see if they complied with the various rules that impacted them.

Corporate Liability and Punitive Damages

And if we can show that a trucking company through its dispatch was pushing drivers to keep driving even though they knew or should have known that their driver was fatigued and that their driver had pushed well beyond the permitted limits of the hours of service, then that could enhance a claim.

That in turn can lead to punitive damages because that type of conduct is completely unacceptable and that’s something that jurors hate.

The Driver as Victim:

And when you have those situations where a trucking company is pushing its drivers beyond their limits, beyond what the law permits, the driver in a way becomes a victim of sorts. You know, they’re trying to do their best to feed their families, to take care of themselves, to be responsible, but then they end up working for a company that does not care about the law, does not respect the law, and pushes them beyond what is legally permitted.

And in that situation, the driver is oftentimes a victim. They’re doing the best they can. They’re having an employer who does not respect the law and that opens and creates an opportunity to hold the trucking company directly liable for what happened.

Why You Need a Board-Certified Attorney

So in sum, a skilled board-certified attorney is going to know the hours of service regulations. They’re going to know the tricks that are played to try to manipulate or even beat those. And we know how to build a case to show not just that the driver violated the rules, not just that they were fatigued, but that their trucking company knew about this and perhaps even pushed the driver to violate those rules.

Get Help

And so if you are someone who unfortunately is dealing with a serious truck accident case and it either created injuries or even worse for you or a loved one, please reach out. I’d be glad to see if I can point you in the right direction, give you information that you can use to figure out whether this crash was preventable because the driver was fatigued.

I do appreciate you watching. If you haven’t yet, please consider subscribing and liking this video. And stay tuned for more videos.

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Key Takeaways: Hours of Service Violations

• 13% of crashes involve fatigue—likely underreported – Unlike drunk driving, fatigue can’t be measured with a simple test
• Fatigued driving equals drunk driving danger – Impaired judgment, slow reaction time, and micro sleeps create the same hazards
• 100 feet traveled per second at highway speed – A 3-second micro sleep means traveling an entire football field blind
• 11-hour driving limit after 10 hours off – Drivers must stop after 11 hours of driving and take 10 consecutive hours rest
• 14-hour on-duty window – Once on duty, all driving must be completed within 14 hours regardless of breaks
• 30-minute break after 8 hours – Mandatory rest period to prevent continuous driving
• 60/70-hour weekly limit – Cannot drive after 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days
• 34-hour reset required – After reaching weekly limit, drivers must take 34 consecutive hours off
• Sleeper berth provision allows split rest – 7 hours in sleeper berth plus 2 hours elsewhere, but creates manipulation opportunities
• ELDs required since 2017 – Electronic logging devices replaced paper logs but workarounds exist
• Personal conveyance loophole – Drivers falsely claim personal driving time to extend hours
• ELD data exists only 8 days – Critical evidence disappears quickly if not preserved immediately
• Detention time creates pressure – Waiting at facilities eats into driving time but schedules don’t adjust
• Tight profit margins drive violations – Companies make unrealistic delivery promises that require rule-breaking
• Cross-reference reveals manipulation – Compare logs to GPS, texts, emails, and telematics to find discrepancies
• Physical evidence matters – Empty Red Bull cans, stimulants, and drug residue prove fatigue
• Defeats sudden medical emergency defense – Hours of service violations prove fatigue, not unforeseeable medical event
• Corporate liability and punitive damages – Dispatch pushing drivers beyond limits creates company liability
• Drivers are often victims too – Economic pressure forces compliance with illegal company demands

The Five Key Hours of Service Rules:

1. 11-Hour Driving Limit – Maximum 11 consecutive hours driving after 10 hours off duty
2. 14-Hour On-Duty Window – All driving must be completed within 14 hours of coming on duty
3. 30-Minute Break – Required after 8 hours of driving time
4. 60/70-Hour Weekly Limit – Cannot drive after 60 hours in 7 days (or 70 in 8 days)
5. 34-Hour Reset – Required consecutive off-duty time after reaching weekly limit

How Hours of Service Violations Are Proven:

• Obtain ELD data immediately – Only exists for 8 days before overwriting
• Compare logs to GPS coordinates – Telematics data shows actual locations vs. claimed locations
• Review text messages and emails – Dispatch communications reveal pressure and unrealistic demands
• Inspect the truck physically – Energy drinks, stimulants, medications indicate fatigue management
• Consult industry experts – Specialists identify log manipulation patterns
• Analyze detention time records – Proves impossible schedules that require violations

Data Shows That Fatigued Drivers are Dangerous

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration—that’s the federal agency that regulates trucking—has found that driver fatigue is a factor in 13% of all fatal truck accidents. That might not sound like a lot until you realize that means fatigue contributes to hundreds of preventable deaths every year.

But here’s the thing—that 13% is almost certainly an undercount. Why? Because fatigue is hard to measure after an accident. Unlike drunk driving, there’s no breathalyzer for tiredness. Unless the driver admits they were exhausted or unless we can prove they violated hours of service rules, fatigue often goes undetected and unrecorded.

Research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that drivers who sleep less than 5 hours have crash rates similar to drunk drivers. A driver who’s been awake for 18 hours—which happens all the time in trucking when hours of service rules are violated—is as impaired as someone with a blood alcohol content of .05. At 24 hours without sleep, it’s equivalent to a .10 blood alcohol content—legally drunk in every state.

The National Transportation Safety Board has repeatedly identified fatigue as one of the most critical safety issues in trucking. They’ve been pushing for stricter enforcement for decades, but the trucking industry fights every attempt to strengthen these rules.

The Science of Driver Fatigue

Studies have consistently shown that:

• Driving while fatigued is comparable to driving drunk: A driver who has been awake for 18 hours has reaction times similar to someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.05%. After 24 hours awake, it’s equivalent to a BAC of 0.10%—legally drunk in every state.
• Microsleeps are deadly: Fatigued drivers experience “microsleeps”—brief episodes of sleep lasting 1-5 seconds. At highway speeds, a truck can travel the length of a football field during a microsleep. The driver may have no memory of these episodes.
• Fatigue impairs judgment: Exhausted drivers make poor decisions—following too closely, driving too fast for conditions, failing to check blind spots, or misjudging distances and speeds.
• Performance degrades progressively: The longer a driver operates without adequate rest, the more their performance deteriorates. By hour 10 or 11 of driving, even a driver who doesn’t feel particularly tired is operating with significantly impaired abilities.

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How Hours of Service Violations Occur

HOS violations don’t happen in a vacuum. They occur because of systemic problems in the trucking industry:

Economic Pressure

Trucking is an intensely competitive, low-margin business. Companies that can deliver freight faster and cheaper win contracts. This creates enormous pressure to maximize the hours drivers spend behind the wheel and minimize downtime.

Drivers are often paid by the mile, not by the hour, which means they don’t get paid for time spent resting, waiting to load or unload, or dealing with delays. This creates a financial incentive for drivers to violate HOS rules to maximize their earnings.

Unrealistic Delivery Schedules

Shippers, freight brokers, and trucking companies sometimes create delivery schedules that can only be met if drivers violate HOS regulations. A driver may leave the terminal with a load that mathematically cannot be delivered on time without exceeding the 11-hour driving limit or violating the 14-hour rule.

When this happens, drivers face an impossible choice: violate the regulations to meet the delivery deadline, or follow the rules and face consequences from their employer or the loss of future loads.

Inadequate Oversight

While Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) have made it harder to falsify hours of service records, violations still occur through:

• Drivers operating in “personal conveyance” mode when they’re actually driving for business purposes
• Drivers manipulating their duty status to extend their driving window
• Companies failing to adequately monitor driver logs or ignoring violations they do discover
• Inadequate enforcement by the FMCSA, which simply doesn’t have enough inspectors to catch all violations

Cultural Acceptance

In some segments of the trucking industry, HOS violations are seen as just “part of the job.” Drivers and dispatchers may view the regulations as unrealistic or burdensome, leading to a culture where violations are expected or even encouraged.

Causes Other Than Lack of Sleep

But not all fatigue results from a lack of sleep or overwork. A driver may also experience fatigue because of illness, medication, or even a blood sugar crash. Those causes of driver fatigue are every bit as dangerous as lack of sleep, and drivers who are fatigued for any reason should stop driving.

Understanding Federal Regulations Regarding Fatigued Drivers

The trucking industry is heavily regulated by both the federal and state governments.  The federal government has established a number of guidelines called the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, and those regulations govern a number of aspects of the trucking industry that affect safety.  Such areas of regulation include drug and alcohol usage and testing, driver qualifications, and inspection, maintenance and repair of trucks.  A significant area of regulation deals with hours of service for drivers.

The hours of service violations for truckers provisions are there to prevent fatigue-related crashes. The government recognizes that a common cause of trucking accidents is driver fatigue.  Drivers face pressure from their trucking companies to complete their runs as quickly as possible, and many drivers seek financial incentives by completing the maximum amount of miles and runs.

The government implemented a number of hours of service rules in the FMCSR to prevent drivers from over-exerting themselves and creating a danger from falling asleep or driving in a fatigued state.  These rules dictate when and how long a driver can drive his or her tractor trailer.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Regarding Hours of Service

The FMCSR contains four main hours of service rules that apply to truckers operating tractor trailers:

1. The 11 Hour Rule

   49 C.F.R. 395.3. A truck driver may drive a maximum of 11 hours after taking an off-duty break of at least 10 consecutive hours.  A trucker could violate this, of course, by not taking a full 10 hour break between shifts or by continuing to drive for more than 11 hours.

2. The 14 Hour Rule

   A truck driver has a window of 14 hours after he or she starts his or her shift to drive.  In that 14-hour period, the truck driver is allowed to drive a maximum of 11 hours.  The shift must be preceded by a 10 consecutive hour break.  Time that is spent off-duty does not extend the 14-hour period. The 14 hours applies to all hours worked, not just to hours driving.

3. Required 30 minute rest breaks

   A big rig driver may drive only for 8 consecutive hours before taking a 30 minute, off-duty break. After taking the 30 minute break, a trucker can then drive for another three hours before having to stop per the 11 Hour Rule.  There are limited exceptions for this rule, such as for certain drivers who drivers within a 100 air-mile radius of his or her normal work reporting location.

4. The 60/70 Hour Limit

   In addition to what can be thought of as “daily” rules above, the FMCSR also has a “weekly” limit for driving hours.  This weekly limit can come in two forms, either a 60 hour driving limit during any 7 consecutive days or a 70 hour driving limit during any 8 consecutive days.  These rules depend on whether the trucking company operates trucks only six days a week or instead operates all seven.  For companies that operate six days a week, a driver may not exceed 60 hours of driving during a period of 7 consecutive days.  For companies that operate seven days a week, a driver may not exceed 70 hours in 8 consecutive days.

Once a driver has hit their 60/70 hour limit, they may not drive again until they have dropped below the 60 or 70 hours during a consecutive 7 or 8 day period. A truck driver can do a “restart” of their 60/70 clock by taking 34 consecutive hours off duty, which is known as a 34-Hour Restart.

These various rules all work together to try to make sure drivers do not spend so much time behind the wheel that they are unable to drive safely. Driving can be difficult and exhausting work. If a driver does not take breaks, that driver can be exhausted to the point that their ability to drive is impaired. They may fall asleep at the wheel.  They may develop health conditions that impact their ability to drive. No matter how you look at it, an exhausted truck driver is not a safe one.

How We Prove Hours of Service Violations

When I investigate a truck accident case, hours of service compliance is always one of the first things I examine. Here’s how we prove violations:

Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Data

Since December 2017, most commercial motor vehicles must be equipped with ELDs that automatically record driving time. This data is invaluable for proving HOS violations because it can’t be easily manipulated like paper logs could be.

ELD data shows:

• Exactly when the truck was moving and when it was stopped
• The driver’s duty status at any given time
• Whether the driver exceeded driving limits
• Whether required breaks were actually taken
• Patterns of violations over days or weeks

Critical point: As I discussed in my article about evidence preservation, ELD data may only be stored for 8 days on the device itself. We must act immediately to preserve this data before it’s overwritten or “lost.”

Driver Logs and Records of Duty Status

Even with ELDs, we still review the driver’s logs to look for:

• Discrepancies between the ELD data and what was logged
• Patterns suggesting systematic violations
• Evidence that the driver changed their duty status inappropriately
• Missing or incomplete log entries

Dispatch Records and Communications

Text messages, phone calls, and electronic communications between drivers and dispatchers can reveal:

• Whether the driver reported being tired and was told to keep driving
• Whether the company created unrealistic delivery schedules
• Whether dispatchers encouraged or pressured drivers to violate HOS rules
• Whether the company was aware of ongoing violations and failed to stop them

Driver Qualification and History Files

The driver’s qualification file and employment history can show:

• Previous HOS violations documented in inspections or audits
• Whether the company knew the driver had a history of violations when they hired them
• Patterns of violations that the company failed to address

Company Safety Policies and Audits

We examine the trucking company’s safety policies and any FMCSA audit reports to determine:

• Whether the company had adequate policies for HOS compliance
• Whether policies were actually enforced
• Whether previous audits identified systemic HOS violations
• How the company responded (or failed to respond) to known compliance problems

Expert Analysis

In complex cases, we retain trucking industry experts who can:

• Analyze ELD data and driver logs to identify violations
• Calculate whether delivery schedules were realistic
• Testify about industry standards and whether the company met them
• Explain to a jury how HOS violations contributed to the crash

Common Defense Tactics

When we prove HOS violations in a truck accident case, defense attorneys typically try several approaches:

“The Violation Didn’t Cause the Crash”

The defense will argue that even though the driver was in violation of HOS rules, that violation didn’t cause the accident. They will claim it would have happened regardless of how long the driver had been on duty.

Our response: We present expert testimony about driver fatigue, reaction times, and decision-making abilities. We show that a rested driver would have been able to avoid the crash. Our team will point to specific evidence. We will show the driver’s failure to brake, failure to notice obvious hazards, or slow reaction time. This evidence is consistent with fatigue.

“The Driver Wasn’t Actually Fatigued”

The defense may argue that the driver got adequate sleep during off-duty periods. They will claim he wasn’t actually tired, so the technical HOS violation is irrelevant.

Our response: The regulations aren’t just about subjective feelings of fatigue—they’re based on objective research showing that performance degrades after certain periods of continuous operation, regardless of whether the driver “feels” tired. The regulations are preventive, not just reactive.

“The Violation Was Minor”

The defense may try to minimize the violation. They will say, “He was only 15 minutes over his hours” or “He was just a few minutes short of the required break time.”

Our response: The regulations exist for a reason, and courts have consistently held that even “minor” violations of safety regulations are significant. Moreover, in many cases, what appears to be a minor violation on the day of the crash is part of a pattern of systematic violations.

“The ELD Data Is Unreliable”

The defense may challenge the accuracy of ELD data or claim the driver properly used exceptions to the rules.

Our response: ELDs are federally certified devices specifically designed to accurately record driving time. While there are limited exceptions to HOS rules (adverse driving conditions, personal conveyance, etc.), these exceptions are narrowly defined and heavily documented. Our experts can analyze whether exceptions were properly claimed.

“The Driver Experienced a Sudden Medical Emergency”

Trucking companies repeatedly claim that drivers who lose control of their trucks while driving experienced a sudden medical emergency. They will claim the driver had no reason to anticipate the medical emergency. They will also contend that it rendered it impossible for the driver to control the vehicle.

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What This Means for Your Case

If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, hours of service violations can significantly strengthen your case and increase its value:

• It establishes clear negligence: Federal regulations were violated, and violations of safety regulations constitute negligence.
• It shows corporate culpability: HOS violations often reveal systemic problems at the trucking company, supporting claims against the company itself and potentially larger damage awards.
• It demonstrates industry knowledge: Trucking companies know about HOS regulations and the dangers of driver fatigue, so violations show they chose to prioritize profits over safety.
• It supports higher damages: Evidence that a company encouraged or ignored HOS violations can support punitive damage claims in addition to compensatory damages.
• It creates powerful trial evidence: Jurors understand that driving while exhausted is dangerous. Clear evidence of HOS violations—particularly when we can show the company pressured the driver or ignored repeated violations—can be extremely compelling at trial.

Why You Need an Attorney Who Understands Hours of Service Regulations

Hours of service regulations are complex, highly technical, and frequently misunderstood even by attorneys who regularly handle personal injury cases. An attorney who doesn’t specialize in truck accident cases may:

• Not recognize HOS violations when reviewing driver logs
• Not know how to properly interpret ELD data
• Not understand which violations are most significant
• Not know how to use HOS violations to establish corporate liability
• Not have relationships with qualified experts who can analyze and testify about HOS compliance

As Virginia’s only board-certified truck accident attorney, I’ve spent years studying federal motor carrier regulations, including hours of service rules. I know how to read ELD data, how to spot violations in driver logs, and how to use HOS violations to build a comprehensive case against not just the driver but the trucking company, freight broker, and other parties who contributed to the crash.

I’ve taken HOS cases to court and obtained significant results based in part on proving that fatigue caused by regulatory violations was a primary cause of the crash. And I have relationships with nationally recognized experts in trucking safety who can analyze evidence and provide compelling testimony about how HOS violations lead to accidents.

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Limitations on Hours of Service Violations in Court

Here’s a point that is important to remember: just because a truck driver violated the hours of service regulations does not mean that the HOS violation will be admissible in court. That is because the violation of the hours of service rules must have caused the crash. In other words, a court may conclude that a driver was alert but that the crash occurred because the driver’s truck had defective brakes. Although the truck driver will still be legally responsible for the crash, the reason that the crash occurred may not have anything to do with the driver exceeding the permissible hours of service. Instead, the truck crash was caused by driving a truck with defective brakes. If that’s the case, a judge would likely not allow the hours of service violation to come into evidence.

What To Do If You Were Injured By a Fatigued Driver

If you were injured in a tractor trailer accident, it is important to hire an attorney who understands the hours of service rules for truckers and to identify hours of services violations by truckers that may have caused an accident.  For information about tractor trailer accidents, contact experienced Virginia truck accident lawyer Robert E. Byrne, Jr.

Bob is the first and only attorney in Virginia who has been awarded the designation of becoming Board Certified in Truck Accident Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. This distinction is given only to attorneys who have demonstrated deep experience handling truck accident cases, who have passed a mini bar examination dealing with truck law, and passed a rigorous peer review process where other lawyers and judges had to attest to Bob’s ability to handle truck crash cases.

We offer free consultations, and we will not charge any fees unless we receive a recovery.

Call (434) 817-3100 or complete a Case Evaluation form