FMCSA Hours of Service (HOS) Violations and Indiana Truck Accidents

• Because driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of truck accidents in the United States, the FMCSA has instituted Hours of Service (HOS) regulations that limit the time that commercial truck drivers are permitted to spend behind the wheel.
• Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) are supposed to ensure compliance by monitoring how long trucks are driven, but truckers and their employers may tamper with them in order to put in more hours, even though tragedy could strike when they do.
• However, you can overcome attempts to hide HOS violations with help from Hensley’s truck dedicated accident lawyers, who have a history of success with large vehicle injury claims, like a $25 million verdict* for a collision with an ambulance.

*SPECIFIC CASE RESULTS. NO TWO CASES ARE EXACTLY ALIKE.

Although commercial trucks and semi-trailers have many distinctive features that set them apart from the passenger vehicles that travel alongside them on Indiana roads like I-80 and US-31, there are two qualities that the vast majority of vehicles of every type still share:

1. They are driven by humans; and
2. Those humans can make mistakes.

Indeed, mistakes by drivers are at the heart of about 87 percent of truck accidents according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a U.S. Department of Transportation agency with authority over trucks, buses, and other commercial vehicles. And while truck drivers may be less susceptible to making mistakes thanks to the advanced level of training they have to undergo in order to get licensed, they could be more susceptible to an especially dangerous form of vehicular misconduct: fatigue.

In contrast to most motorists, who are only in their vehicles for an average of 63 minutes per day, truckers are at the helm of their rigs for most of their professional lives. Driving that many hours in a row can hinder their ability to operate their trucks and semi-trailers effectively, and tragedy can strike when they don’t.

Given how catastrophic truck accidents can be, the FMCSA has enacted strict Hours of Service (HOS) regulations that prohibit truckers from driving when they’ve been awake so long that it’s no longer safe to do so. Sadly, time is money for truckers, and the financial pressures that they’re under can push them to stretch or violate the legal limits imposed on them, possibly to the breaking point, and you might be the one who pays the price for it.

Nevertheless, truckers who commit HOS violations and the trucking companies who encourage them can be held to account by the truck accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, PC, a dedicated Indiana personal injury law firm whose experienced attorneys have been fighting on behalf of the wrongfully injured since 1998 and have obtained such notable outcomes in large vehicle accident cases as:

• A $25 million jury verdict for a collision with an ambulance.
• An $8.0 million claim resolution for a delivery truck injury.
• A $5.5 million negotiated settlement for a semi-trailer crash.

In recognition of achievements like these, Hensley has been named as one of the Best Law Firms in the United States by Best Lawyers®, while Hensley truck accident attorney Sarah Graziano received the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association in 2023. Attorneys at the firm have also earned inclusion in the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, the American Association for Justice, Trucking Litigation Group, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Super Lawyers, America’s Top 100 Attorneys, and the National Trial Lawyers’ lists of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and the Top 40 Under 40, and they would be equally proud to earn the chance to get you justice.

You can arrange a free consultation with a highly skilled Indiana truck accident attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form now.

The Importance of FMCSA Hours of Service Regulations

You’ve probably heard quite a bit about the dangers of driving while you’re intoxicated, but you may not have heard as much about the dangers of driving while you’re fatigued. That’s deeply unfortunate, since sleeping too little can be as detrimental to driving as drinking too much, with one study finding that going 20 hours without sleep can produce the same impairment as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent, the legal threshold for driver intoxication in Indiana.

Yet unlike drunkenness, which can be measured with breathalyzers and blood tests, there’s no objective method for measuring if somebody is too tired to drive, but the FMCSA is well aware of this problem and has tried to address it by instituting Hours of Service (HOS) regulations. These are a series of rules governing the time that truckers can spend behind the wheel, including how many hours they can work and how many of those hours they can devote to driving.

To verify that they’re in compliance, truckers and other large vehicle operators have to track or “log” the hours that they drive carefully, something that is primarily done with Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) connected to truck engines. Any drivers whose logs show that they exceeded their permitted Hours of Service could incur fines and other penalties, as could the companies that employ them, and the drivers and their employers could similarly be penalized for not maintaining logs or maintaining them in a dishonest manner.

Repeated HOS violations could lead to temporary or permanent suspensions of a trucker’s driving privileges, though violations of any kind could have a direct bearing on your trucking injury case. By proving that a trucker was driving too long in the eyes of the law, an Indiana truck accident lawyer can argue that the trucker was likely impaired and should have known it, thereby supporting a claim of negligence against the driver and maybe the trucking company who allowed the violation.

Common FMCSA Hours of Service Violations

The FMCSA’s Hours of Service regulations can be found in Title 49, Part 395 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or “49 CFR §395” for short. These rules lay out the protocols for the drivers of “property-carrying commercial motor vehicles,” a category that includes large trucks and semi-trailers, and any truck driver who doesn’t abide by them could be violating federal law.

There are many FMCSA Hours of Service violations that could come into play in the event of a truck accident, but among the most commonly cited in truck accident cases are:

Driving Too Long in a Single Shift – A trucker’s shift or workday is not allowed to surpass a certain length, and only a portion of that shift can be used for driving.

Under 49 CFR §395.3(a)(2), a “driver may not drive after a period of 14 consecutive hours.” This 14-hour duty window is set in stone, and a trucker may not go over it in a single shift even if there are delays that prevent a driver from completing the hours scheduled, such as an unexpected wait on a loading dock.

Moreover, a trucker isn’t allowed to drive for the entirety of a 14-hour shift, since 49 CFR §395.3(a)(3) states that a “driver may drive a total of 11 hours during the [14-hour] period.” The other three hours have to be reserved for non-driving tasks (including a mandatory break), and a trucker may not drive the full 11 hours if the non-driving portion of the shift eats up more than three hours.

Once a driver’s shift ends, another one can’t begin without that driver “taking 10 consecutive hours off duty” first in keeping with 49 CFR §395.3(a)(1).

Not Taking Breaks – Truckers have to deal with other limits beyond the limit on driving no more than 11 hours per shift: 49 CFR §395.3(a)(3)(ii) states that they can’t drive more than eight hours in a row “without at least a consecutive 30-minute interruption in driving status.”

This works out to a minimum of one legally 30-minute “break” per work window that “may be satisfied either by off-duty, sleeper berth or on-duty not driving time or by a combination of off-duty, sleeper berth and on-duty not driving time.”

Driving Too Many Hours Per Work Week – Just like the FMCSA restricts the number of hours of driving per workday, it restricts the number of hours that can be driven per work week as well, though the maximum number of hours in a work week will depend upon the operations of the trucking company.

If “the employing motor carrier operates commercial motor vehicles every day of the week,” a trucker’s work week is supposed to be over once the trucker has “been on duty 70 hours in any period of 8 consecutive days” (49 CFR §395.3(b)(2)).

For an employing motor carrier that doesn’t operate vehicles every day, the work week should end after the trucker has been “on duty 60 hours in any period of 7 consecutive days” (49 CFR §395.3(b)(1)).

Starting the Work Week Too Soon – After a work week has ended, the next work week can’t start until a trucker takes “34 or more consecutive hours” off duty.

Any trucker who restarts the work week before 34 hours has passed will be in violation of 49 CFR §395.3(c) and at a significant risk of not being sufficiently recharged for the shift.

Manipulating or Falsifying Hours of Service Logs – The FMCSA doesn’t simply take truckers at their word when gauging whether they’ve followed Hours of Service rules. Instead, 49 CFR §395.8 requires truck drivers to log the hours in which they drive their trucks and update their duty status and other critical fields over the course of each trip.

Most often these logs are created with Electronic Logging Devices or ELDs. Regardless of the format, HOS logs must be kept for at least six months by the trucking companies and can be inspected at various times, including by officers during traffic stops, FMCSA investigators during audits, and truck accident attorneys during the litigation process. As such, the logs need to be accurate, and anyone who manipulates or falsifies them or merely fails to keep them on a consistent basis could be in violation of federal law.

No matter if an FMCSA Hours of Service violation is an innocent error or a conscious attempt to get around the law, driving more than the acceptable number of hours could put everyone in the vicinity in jeopardy, and it’s vital not to let a violator get away with it.

How FMCSA HOS Violations Can Be Exposed

So what are your options if you believe that truck driver fatigue is responsible for the crash that injured you but the truck’s HOS logs don’t seem to reflect that?

Sometimes your theory of a collision may not be borne out in reality, but at other times an HOS log may have actually been modified to hide the fact that a trucker was driving for an illegal number of hours. But FMCSA Hours of Service violations can be exposed if you can reconstruct the genuine timeline for a truck driver’s journey from the moment of ignition to the moment of impact.

The truth has a tendency to come out, and that’s definitely true of commercial trucks in the 21st century, when everything they do seems to be captured in some way or other, including in the data that’s inside of an already modified ELD. A trucker may log in as “off duty” but continue driving, or a trucking company may edit ELD records after an accident, but there are frequently too many variables for would-be lawbreakers to keep straight in their heads, and any inconsistencies between them could indicate deception.

Aside from scrutinizing the ELD records in isolation, seasoned investigators could compare them to other records that are routinely generated whenever a commercial truck leaves the garage, including:

• Black box and ECM (Electronic or Engine Control Module) data
• GPS (Global Positioning System) movements
• Fuel purchase and tollbooth receipts
• Cellphone usage (calls placed, texts sent, towers pinged)
• Bills of lading
• Dispatch messages
• Delivery and pickup timestamps
• Dash cam, streetlight, and surveillance videos

Truck drivers and their employers may be much less able to tamper with this information, and it could serve as an invaluable rebuttal to questionable ELD data, as it could independently demonstrate that a trucker was very active during a period that the ELD logged as “off duty.”

However, acquiring these materials is no easy feat, and neither is using them to build a compelling personal injury case that could get you fairly compensated for your losses, but this is where Hensley’s truck accident lawyers can be a huge help.

What Our Truck Accident Attorneys Can Do About FMCSA HOS Violations

If you hire Hensley, our tenacious truck accident attorneys will identify all of the potential defendants for your case and establish valid claims against them by sending formal notification in writing and alerting their insurance companies. (A lawsuit will usually be filed too in a court with jurisdiction over the incident.)

Our initial correspondence with the trucking company and any other defendants who may have access to the truck will demand that they preserve anything that might be classified as evidence, including data from onboard devices like the ELD, the black box/ECM, and the GPS. The letter will further warn that erasing or changing this data will force us to take action for any destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence, otherwise known as “spoliation of evidence.”

During the legal proceedings that ensue, Hensley’s truck accident lawyers will grill the defendants about their handling of ELD data along with any discrepancies between it and data from other sources so that they can face the consequences for any wrongdoing. Being found guilty of spoliation with respect to ELD data could subject the defendants to harsh sanctions, including restrictions on contradicting our claims about the data, unfavorable jury instructions, and fines.

In addition to taking pains to protect relevant electronic data and whatever else in the defendants’ possession might be pertinent, our firm will move swiftly to secure any outside proof of Hours of Service violations or other wrongdoing that may exist. Our meticulous truck accident attorneys will then go through everything they have amassed with a fine-tooth comb, coordinating with experts when warranted, so that a rock-solid case can be assembled and you can get the compensation you deserve.

Reach Out to Our Indiana Truck Accident Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for the seriously injured for nearly three decades. If you’re struggling to get back to normal after a truck driver fatigue accident in the Hoosier State, reach out to our Indiana truck accident lawyers to explore the remedies that may be available to you.

You can call us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form for a no-cost case review with a knowledgeable Indiana truck accident attorney.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Hours of Service (HOS) regulations?

Hours of Service (HOS) regulations are rules instituted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to combat driver fatigue, one of the leading causes of truck accidents.

HOS regulations limit the time that truckers can drive as well as what they can do during their shifts, and stiff penalties may be imposed on truck drivers and their employers for any violations they commit.

What are the most common FMCSA Hours of Service violations?

The FMCSA Hours of Service violations that are most likely to come up in the event of an Indiana truck accident are:

• Driving Too Long in a Single Shift
• Not Taking Breaks
• Driving Too Many Hours Per Work Week
• Starting the Work Week Too Soon
• Manipulating or Falsifying Hours of Service Logs

How many hours are truck drivers allowed to work?

Truck drivers have hard caps on the number of hours they can work per day and per work week, though the exact number can vary in certain circumstances.

In general, truck drivers can work up to 14 hours per day, with only 11 of those hours devoted to driving, and they are allowed to drive either 60 or 70 hours over the course of a work week that could run from 7 to 8 days depending upon their employers’ scheduling practices.

What is an Electronic Logging Device (ELD)?

An Electronic Logging Device or ELD is an apparatus installed in a commercial truck that records when the truck is being driven and other pertinent details about each trip being taken.

ELDs are the chief means of ensuring compliance with FMCSA Hours of Service regulations, so it’s important to watch out for any indication that somebody has tampered with one in an effort to hide a violation.

Can Hours of Service violations be exposed?

While truckers and trucking companies might try to escape detection when they break FMCSA rules, a capable truck accident lawyer can expose Hours of Service violations by reconstructing the genuine timeline of a truck driver’s journey.

This is usually accomplished by closely scrutinizing ELD logs and comparing them with other sources of information, like black box/ECM data, GPS movements, delivery records, and fuel and tollbooth receipts.