Sleep Apnea and Truck Accidents in Arkansas

Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder that affects over 100 million people around the world. When someone suffers from sleep apnea, he or she temporarily stops breathing during his or her sleep. This pause in breathing can last at least 10 seconds and occurs at multiple times throughout the night. This causes interrupted sleep, which makes truckers feel more fatigued when they’re driving, even if they got the recommended hours of sleep prior to operating their vehicles.

While anyone can have sleep apnea, this sleep disorder most commonly affects men who are overweight, have a recessed chin or small jaw and who are over the age of 40. Smoking and alcohol use can also increase the chances of having sleep apnea.

Arkansas truck drivers are at an increased risk of being diagnosed with sleep apnea due to their sedentary jobs. Spending long hours behind the wheel of a truck makes it difficult to live a healthy lifestyle. Truckers may eat fast food while on the road or binge on empty carbs as a way to fill up while driving. Spending so much time on the road also makes it more difficult to exercise and remain active.

Sleep apnea often develops quietly, and many truck drivers do not realize they have a problem until someone else notices the symptoms first. A family member might hear loud or chronic snoring. Truckers with sleep apnea often wake up with a headache or a dry mouth, and they stay exhausted no matter how many hours they spend trying to rest.

The symptoms do not stay confined to the sleeper berth. A driver with untreated sleep apnea may struggle to concentrate on the road during the workday, and their reaction time is slower. Many also notice unexplained weight gain over months of poor rest, and a medical examiner may flag high blood pressure during a routine physical. In Arkansas, families investigating a truck accident often discover that these overlooked signs of sleep apnea were present long before the crash, which is why recognizing them matters as much for legal claims as for the driver’s own health.

Truck drivers in Arkansas who are constantly fatigued or who snore while they sleep may be suffering from sleep apnea. While there are treatments available to help truck drivers overcome sleep apnea, they require a precise and prompt diagnosis. If you think you may be suffering from sleep apnea, see a qualified medical professional to undergo a sleep test. Once you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, your doctor may prescribe lifestyle changes, and possibly a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure device) machine.

One of the best treatments for obstructive sleep apnea is called a CPAP machine.  A CPAP machine delivers a steady stream of air through a mask worn over the nose and mouth during sleep, keeping the airway open. It is highly effective when used properly.

Sleep apnea results in chronic fatigue and increased risk of heart disease, strokes and other health conditions. In truck drivers, driving while fatigued can also result in deadly trucking accidents. When the body doesn’t get proper sleep, cognitive function and ability decrease. This increases the likelihood that truck drivers will fall asleep while driving or make poor decisions while on the road.

A Virginia Tech study showed that chronic fatigue and sleepiness caused 20 percent of all crashes in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that fatigue caused an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and over $12.5 billion in monetary losses every year.

While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not specifically require truckers to get tested for sleep apnea, they do require medical screening in order to safely operate a vehicle. To help prevent deadly trucking accidents due to fatigue, lawmakers are now looking to screen and test truck drivers for sleep apnea. While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not specifically require truckers to get tested for sleep apnea, they do require medical screening in order to safely operate a vehicle. To reduce accidents, doctors may be actively looking for signs of sleep apnea in truck drivers now. If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, you will be required to receive sleep apnea treatment to regain your “medically qualified to drive” status. With treatment, however, it is common for truck drivers to be able to continue driving their big rigs and commercial trucks without difficulty.

Truck drivers who receive a sleep apnea diagnosis are not necessarily barred from getting behind the wheel again. Many continue their careers by using a CPAP machine every night, even in the sleeper berth, keeping the device connected to a power inverter so it runs properly on the road. A consistent sleep schedule also helps, even when routes and delivery windows change from week to week.

Managing the condition well takes more than the machine alone. A driver who avoids alcohol and sedating medications gives the treatment room to work as intended, and maintaining a healthy weight supports better breathing overnight. Regular follow-up appointments let a physician confirm the therapy is still working. Trucking companies can support these efforts by scheduling realistic routes and monitoring CPAP compliance data rather than assuming a driver is following through on his own. When companies operating in Arkansas skip that oversight, an untreated sleep apnea condition can quietly turn a routine haul into a serious truck accident.

When untreated sleep apnea contributes to a wreck, liability does not always stop with the driver. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations require every commercial driver to meet physical qualification standards under Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations § 391.41 before receiving a medical certificate. If a trucking company knew, or reasonably should have known, that a driver had untreated sleep apnea and let him keep working anyway, the company may bear responsibility for a negligent hiring decision, or for failing to supervise a driver it should have pulled off the road.

Arkansas also follows a comparative-fault framework under Arkansas Code Annotated § 16-64-122, which shapes how compensation is calculated when more than one party shares blame for a wreck. Because trucking companies often carry far more insurance coverage than an individual driver does, connecting the sleep apnea to a company’s failure to screen or monitor its driver can open meaningful compensation after a truck accident here in Arkansas that a claim against the driver alone would not reach.

After a wreck, our attorneys move quickly to determine whether sleep apnea played a role. That process often begins with a request for the driver qualification file, which should include the most recent Department of Transportation physical and any restrictions on the driver’s medical certificate. From there, we look at whether the company kept up with CPAP compliance data showing the driver was actually using his machine as prescribed.

Dispatch schedules and electronic logging device records round out the picture, showing whether a trucking company set delivery windows tight enough to discourage proper rest in the first place. Because trucking companies and their insurers are not required to preserve this evidence indefinitely, prompt legal action matters.