Eagle Ford Shale Area Experiencing Vastly Increased Traffic Crash Risk

An article just appeared on abc13.com (KTRK, 1/13/13) saying what our Texas truck accident lawyers have been saying for a long time: driver fatigue on the narrow, poorly-lit roads criss-crossing the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas development region has been driving up accident injury and fatality numbers. A spike in the road accident death toll in the Eagle Ford Shale area is being blamed on the increase in traffic by fatigued drivers over recent years.

Higher Numbers of Fatigued Truck Drivers may be driving the Spike in Serious Injury and Fatal Crashes

Most of those fatigued drivers work for the oil and gas companies. And many of them are driving trucks of various sizes on these narrow roads. Much of the truck traffic is exempt from certain federal regulations limit truck driver hours on the road. And many of these drivers are piloting their trucks at the end of long shifts lasting 20 hours or more. And truck drivers tend to experience sleep apnea at a higher rate than the general population. Sleep apnea adds to the risk of driver fatigue and fatal crashes.

The oil and gas companies in the Eagle Ford Shale region would actually like to add thousands of other truck drivers to their payrolls. But truck driving is one of the few industries experiencing more open job positions than applicants.

Four Texas Eagle Ford Shale Counties Suffering under the Burden of Higher Traffic Fatalities

The KTRK article focuses on a report from TxDOT that says that in Dimmit County the number of road accidents increased from 40 in 2011 to almost 190 in 2012, a rise of more than 400%. Traffic fatalities in Dimmit County also more than doubled from 5 to 11.

In La Salle County, TxDOT says that the death toll tripled from 4 in 2011 to 12 in 2012. In the past, our Texas truck accident lawyers have reported the more than 1,000% rise in fatal and injury accidents since 2008 in McMullen County, one of the counties hardest-hit by the traffic increase from the Eagle Ford Shale area. Karnes County has seen its risk of fatal traffic crashes increase by a factor of 12 since 2008.

Add to the fatigue problem the fact that in many of these remote, previously lightly-traveled Texas counties the roads are narrow, old, two-lane roads poorly-lit and in poor condition, and you have a recipe for serious road injuries and fatalities.

Continue to Part 2 to read about some suggested solutions to the problem of increased traffic crashes.