Semi Truck Driver Falls Asleep While Driving, Crashes and Dies

SUMMARY

A 56 year-old male long-haul semi-truck driver fell asleep while driving. It was approximately 4:15 AM and the driver was hauling a load of canned tomatoes. He was approximately 225 miles away from his destination driving in the right hand lane, on a four lane interstate traveling south, when he fell asleep. Upon falling asleep, the unit travelled to the right, across the rumble strip and the emergency lane, behind a guardrail, down an embankment and crashed into a grove of trees. A man driving a car behind the semi truck saw dust rise from the crash, stopped, called emergency medical services and spoke with the driver. The driver stated that he fell asleep. EMS arrived six minutes later, spoke with the driver who was trapped and restated that he fell asleep while driving. The driver died 20 minutes later while emergency services tried to extricate him from the semi.

Semi Truck Driver Falls Asleep While Driving, Crashes and Dies [PDF 1,297 KB]