A man whose wife was killed in an auto accident on her way home from a 12-hour shift as a nurse at an Ohio hospital has filed a lawsuit for wrongful death.

The lawsuit was filed by Jim Jasper, who claims his wife, 38-year-old Beth Jasper, was overworked and exhausted because of chronic understaffing at her place of employment, Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati.

According to court documents, Jasper alleges that the hospital was routinely short-staffed and that his wife was often called in on her days off because she was one of the few employees who was qualified to operate the hospital’s dialysis machines.

Beth died when her vehicle struck a tree after she fell asleep behind the wheel.

A spokesperson for National Nurses United, the country’s largest nursing union, said that understaffing of nurses is prevalent throughout the country, except in California, where there are laws requiring minimum staffing levels for nurses.