Your weekend drive ended in a collision with a truck driver, and now you’re wondering what you can do to be reimbursed for your injuries. If you live in Buffalo or Niagara Falls, New York, then you may hire an attorney to tell you more about personal injury law. The attorney may also look more closely into how the truck driver was negligent and how that negligence caused the crash.
Negligence can come in many different forms and be caused by many different things. A recent study has asserted that even drinking a high amount of coffee over the long term can raise a truck driver’s risk for an accident.
More crashes and poorer health
A transport safety expert from the Loughborough University Design School, together with researchers from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, made a large-scale analysis of coffee-consuming behaviors among truckers. After looking at 11,000 truckers from eight states, researchers narrowed their focus to 3,007 truckers because they fell into one of the two groups to be studied: those who drink one cup of coffee daily, and those who drink more than five.
Among the low coffee drinkers, 21.6% admitted to being in a crash in the three years prior to the study. However, among the high coffee drinkers, that number was 27.8%. Additionally, the high coffee drinkers were found to be in poorer overall health with an unhealthy diet, lack of restful sleep and habits like smoking.
Further research is required
Researchers say that the cause-effect relationship between coffee drinking and crash risk needs to be studied further. Future studies should, for example, take into account the differences in caffeine consumption levels between the days when the truckers are on the road and the days of rest.
What legal representation may do
It could be that the defendant in your case was suffering from drowsiness and poor health and that this contributed to the crash. A lawyer who focuses on truck accidents may be able to evaluate your case and determine how much you might be eligible for in a settlement. The lawyer may also handle the negotiations for you and take the case to court if necessary.
