Fort Walton Beach Personal Injury Law Blog

Road construction in Florida is a never-ending frustration. Construction crews no sooner finish with one road when they are already at work tearing up another street. It may seem at times like every project the Florida Department of Transportation undertakes is along your route to and from work.

Of course, you understand the necessity of repairing and widening the highways and roads throughout the state, but even the simplest errand can become a test of patience when you get caught up in construction traffic. If driving through work zones is something you do frequently, you should be aware that frustration may be the least of your worries. Other drivers may not be as capable of controlling their frustration, and in a construction zone, there is little room for error.

2017 saw a 9 percent increase in the number of large truck fatalities, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Many people within the trucking industry are voicing their opinions about the possible reasons. Truckers in Florida may be familiar with most of these explanations.

One is that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has burdened commercial truckers with the requirement that they take a 30-minute rest break after eight continuous hours of driving. Some truckers say they would rather drive straight through their 11-hour shift because the break introduces delays and spurs the onset of fatigue. When delays occur, truckers are bound to speed. Fatigued drivers are liable to fall asleep at the wheel.

For drivers in Florida, truck driver fatigue can be a real danger on the roads. Truck drivers often spend long hours over monotonous stretches of highway, leaving them at risk for exhaustion. This is especially true if they're over their legal limit on hours of service or if they have repeatedly switched between daytime and nighttime driving. Because commercial trucks are so massive, other vehicles and their occupants are at a distinct disadvantage in the event of a crash.

Many companies are looking to find ways to reduce the risk of truck driver fatigue and cut down on the resulting truck crashes. New technologies have provided innovative mechanisms to highlight warning signs of fatigue and send up an alert before an accident happens. For example, two firms, Pulsar Informatics and Trimble Technologies, came together to develop a fatigue warning system for the trucking industry that gives every driver a red, yellow or green light for the risk of fatigue he or she poses at any given time.

Driving in Florida or any other state can be difficult during the dawn and dusk hours. This is because bright sunshine can make it difficult to see or judge where other cars or people are. One way to make driving in bright conditions easier is to buy a pair of sunglasses. In addition, drivers should make use of their sun visors as it will block sunlight without impairing their vision.

When the sun is at its brightest, drivers should increase their following distance as the sun's rays can decrease their reaction time. In some cases, it may be best to simply not drive during the early morning or late afternoon hours. Instead, drivers can wait until the sun has fully risen or fully set before driving to work or coming home at night. Those who are on the road during sunrise or sunset may benefit from pulling over if the light hurts their eyes.