A TRUCK driver suing Amazon and a contractor claims he was forced to work “like a rented mule” — once driving for 49 hours straight — which led to a Halloween crash into a concrete barrier.
Timothy Weakley, a contractor for AAA Freight, Inc., was driving for Amazon on October 31 when the accident happened, the lawsuit, filed on Jan. 15, alleges.
The lawsuit says both AAA Freight and Amazon.com Inc. worked Weakley “into the ground like a rented mule and intentionally deprived [him] of sleep which gave rise to the” crash last year.
The crash left Weakley with “physical injuries and economic damages,” the suit says.
He claims AAA Freight would tell him to “suck it up” and stop being lazy when he complained or resisted long driving shifts.
Weakley says he started working for AAA Freight in May 2019 and claims he was “routinely coerced” into driving for 20 to 30 hours straight, with only one or two hours breaks.
Federal law states that truck drivers are limited to driving 11 hours within a 14-hour on-duty window — a law which Weakley says both companies ignored.
On October 15, Weakley claims he was forced by AAA Freight and Amazon to drive for 21 hours straight from Illinois to Kentucky and back to Illinois.
When Weakley resisted the drive, he claims in the lawsuit AAA Freight told him: “Amazon is our biggest and best paying customer so occasionally we have to bend the rules in order to appease them.”
He said AAA Freight then told him in a call that if he didn’t obey their orders, to “turn your truck in and find a new line of work more suitable for laziness.”
Why do y’all keep forcing me to drive in violation like this? This is foul.
Timothy Weakley, truck driver
Between October 25 and 27, Weakley says, he worked a shift that lasted 49 hours and 30 minutes.
He said he told the company he was out of driving hours, but alleged AAA Freight told him they’d take care of his driver’s log.
“Why do y’all keep forcing me to drive in violation like this? This is foul,” Weakley said, per the lawsuit. “I’m running on fumes out here.”
“Amazon needs this route covered tonight because of increased volume and that’s all you need to know,” he claims AAA Freight told him.
At one point, when Amazon assigned him a route after he had already driven for 10 hours that day, Amazon asked him what his point was and told him he’d need to take it up with AAA Freight.
“You guys at Amazon claim to be so safety oriented but that’s a big fat crock of crap apparently,” he said he told Amazon, adding “Go to hell!” before hanging up the phone.
On October 31, Weakley says he was driving on Interstate 26 when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his truck into a concrete barrier.
Weakley says Amazon and AAA Freight’s failure to exercise reasonable care cost him pain, suffering and mental anguish.
He alleges the crash caused him to lose earnings and medical care — and he’s seeking more than $75,000 in damages.
AAA Freight did not immediately return The Sun’s requests for comment.
Amazon, however, told The Sun in a statement: “AAA Freight is one of thousands of companies we contract with to move inventory around the country.”
“We require our contractors and their drivers to comply with strict policies that ensure safety, among other things.”
“We are actively looking into the claims, as we always do when these rare, but unfortunate situations arise,” Amazon said.
The Trump administration in August issued proposed changes to the “hours of service” rules that dictate breaks for truck drivers — a move sought by the trucking industry.
Highway safety groups have warned that the revisions would dangerously weaken regulations and lead to more highway crashes.
In 2017, 4,657 large trucks were involved in fatal crash, a 10 percent increase from the year report, according to a report from the Department of Transportation.
Sixth of those drivers involved were said to be “asleep or fatigued.”
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