Texas Truck Accident Lawyers
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This page is about crashes involving commercial motor vehicles anywhere in Texas — tractor-trailers, 18-wheelers, tankers, oilfield and sand haulers, dump trucks, cattle haulers, box trucks, car haulers and delivery vehicles operating for a business. These cases are governed by a second body of law that ordinary car accident cases never touch: the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 C.F.R. Parts 350–399, which Texas has adopted for intrastate carriers as well through the Department of Public Safety. If you were hit by a passenger vehicle, our Página del accidente de coche de Texas is the better starting point, and our Texas personal injury overview covers the general framework.
Southern Injury Attorneys handles truck cases across the state from our offices in Dallas y Houston, with dedicated local pages for Dallas, Houston , Austin y Fort Worth truck accidents. We take cases along the I-35, I-10, I-20, I-45, I-30, I-37, US-59/I-69, US-287 and US-281 corridors and in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford oilfield counties.
How common are truck crashes in Texas?
The numbers
The Texas Department of Transportation’s 2024 crash records count 39,393 crashes involving a commercial motor vehicle statewide, 546 of them fatalCon 608 people killed and 1,601 suspected serious injuries. Harris County alone recorded 6,313 CMV crashes and 41 deaths; Dallas County 3,857 crashes and 29 deaths; Bexar County 2,684 and 18; Tarrant County 1,716 and 19; Travis County 646 and 13. Source: TxDOT, Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts 2024, Table 30, “Commercial Motor Vehicle Involved Crashes and Injuries by County.” Nationally, NHTSA counted 5,472 people killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2023, and roughly four out of five of them were occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists — not the truck driver.
Why Texas sees so much of it
Texas moves more freight by truck than any other state. I-35 carries NAFTA-era traffic from the Laredo border crossings north through San Antonio, Austin and Dallas–Fort Worth. I-10 runs 880 miles across the state from El Paso to the Louisiana line through Houston, the longest stretch of interstate in any state. I-45 links Houston’s port and petrochemical complex to Dallas; I-20 feeds the Permian Basin through Midland and Odessa. Add the oilfield water, sand and crude haulers on two-lane farm-to-market roads, the cattle and grain trucks of the Panhandle, and the Port of Houston, Port Freeport and Corpus Christi container and tanker traffic, and Texas drivers share the road with commercial traffic at a volume no other state matches.
How long do you have to file a truck accident claim in Texas?
Two years — with exceptions that shorten it
Texas’s general personal injury statute of limitations is dos años from the day the cause of action accrues, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a). Wrongful death and survival claims also carry a two-year period, running from the date of death under § 16.003(b). Two exceptions matter in truck cases:
- Government vehicles and government roads. If the truck belonged to the state, a county, a city, a school district or a transit authority, or if a road defect contributed, the Texas Tort Claims Act applies. The governmental unit is entitled to written notice of the claim within six months of the incident (§ 101.101), and many cities shorten that by charter — some to 90 days or less. Damages are capped at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence against the state and municipalities, and $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence against other local governmental units (§ 101.023).
- Wrongful death. The two-year period governs, but who may bring the claim is fixed by statute — the surviving spouse, children and parents under § 71.004. See our Dallas y Houston wrongful death pages.
Why the real deadline is six months
The filing deadline is not the deadline that usually decides a truck case. The evidence deadline is. The carrier’s own records — the ones that prove hours-of-service violations, maintenance failures and speed at impact — can lawfully be gone before you have finished treating. That is the subject of the next two sections.
What makes a truck case different from a car accident case?
A second rulebook applies
An ordinary crash is judged against ordinary standards of care. A commercial truck crash is also judged against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which are specific and written down. That changes the nature of the proof. Instead of arguing about whether a driver was careful enough in the abstract, a truck case often turns on whether a documented rule was followed — and the carrier is required to keep documents showing whether it was.
The money is different, and so is the defence
Because the coverage behind a commercial truck is far larger than a personal auto policy, the response is far more organised. Carriers and their insurers frequently send investigators to serious crash scenes the same day. By the time an injured person is out of surgery, the other side may already have photographs, measurements, a driver statement and downloaded vehicle data. That asymmetry is the single strongest argument for getting counsel involved early rather than after treatment ends.
The injuries are different
A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 80,000 pounds; a mid-size car weighs about 4,000. Underride, override, rollover and jackknife crashes produce injuries that rarely appear in fender-benders: traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, crush injuries, amputations and burns. Future medical care and lost earning capacity, not past bills, usually dominate the value of these cases, and proving them requires expert testimony rather than arithmetic.
Who can be held responsible besides the driver?
The motor carrier
The company that employs the driver is normally responsible for the driver’s negligence in the course and scope of employment. In many cases the carrier is also exposed on its own conduct — how it hired, trained, supervised, scheduled and maintained. Those are separate theories from the driver’s negligence, and they open separate categories of proof: driver qualification files, training records, prior violation history, dispatch and scheduling pressure.
Brokers, shippers and owners
Freight moving through Texas frequently involves more than a driver and a carrier. A broker arranges the load. A shipper loads it. A separate entity may own the trailer or the tractor. Where a load was improperly secured or overweight, responsibility may sit with whoever loaded it rather than whoever drove it. Establishing who actually controlled what is a large part of the early work in these cases.
Contratistas de mantenimiento y fabricantes de piezas
Brake failures, tire failures and lighting failures are recurring themes in truck litigation. Where a third-party shop performed the maintenance, or where a component failed, additional defendants may belong in the case. Preserving the vehicle itself — not just the data on it — is what makes those claims provable.
How Texas allocates fault among several defendants
Texas’s proportionate responsibility statute, Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, requires the jury to assign a percentage of responsibility to every claimant, defendant, settling person and properly designated responsible third party. Each defendant is ordinarily liable only for its own percentage — unless its share is greater than 50 percent, in which case it is jointly and severally liable for the entire judgment (§ 33.013). A defendant who acted with specific intent to cause harm and committed certain felonies is also jointly and severally liable regardless of percentage.
The practical consequence for truck cases is important. Defendants may designate an absent party as a “responsible third party” under § 33.004 and ask the jury to assign fault to an empty chair. Fault assigned to that party does not come back to the defendants in the room; it reduces the recovery. Identifying and, where appropriate, joining every responsible party early is not thoroughness for its own sake — in Texas it is directly tied to what can be collected.
What federal rules govern the truck that hit you?
Horas de servicio
49 C.F.R. § 395.3 sets the driving limits for property-carrying commercial drivers. A driver may drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, and may not drive at all beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty. A driver may not drive after more than 8 cumulative hours of driving without at least a 30-minute interruption. Weekly limits cap on-duty time at 60 hours in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 days, depending on the carrier’s schedule. Texas has adopted the federal rules for intrastate carriers with limited variances, so a Texas-only oilfield or regional carrier is still bound by hours-of-service and record-keeping requirements.
These limits are where fatigue cases are won or lost. A driver over hours is not merely tired; the driver is in violation of a documented standard, recorded in data the carrier is required to maintain.
Dispositivos de registro electrónico
Hours are now recorded electronically rather than in paper logbooks that could be rewritten. That is a substantial advantage for injured people — but only if the data is secured before it is lawfully overwritten or discarded.
Insurance minimums
Under 49 C.F.R. § 387.9, a for-hire motor carrier operating in interstate commerce with a vehicle rated over 10,000 pounds must maintain minimum financial responsibility of $750,000 for non-hazardous property, rising to $5,000,000 for certain hazardous materials. That number is a floor set in 1980 and never indexed to inflation, not a measure of what a serious injury is worth. Many carriers carry considerably more. Establishing the full coverage picture — primary, excess and umbrella layers — is part of the case, not a given.
Other parts that matter
Driver qualification standards sit in Part 391. Vehicle inspection, repair and maintenance obligations sit in Part 396. Drug and alcohol testing, including post-accident testing, sits in Part 382. Each generates records; each record is a place where a violation can be documented rather than argued.
Why does the evidence disappear in six months?
The retention rules are shorter than the statute of limitations
This is the fact that most surprises people, and it is the most important practical point on this page. A motor carrier is required to retain a back-up copy of electronic logging device records for seis meses — 49 C.F.R. § 395.22. Supporting documents used to verify hours of service are likewise retained for six months under § 395.11.
Read that against Texas’s two-year filing deadline. A person injured in a Texas truck crash can be comfortably within the statute of limitations and still be a year and a half past the point where the carrier could lawfully have stopped keeping the records that would have proved the case.
Onboard data has its own clock
Engine control module data, event data recorder downloads, telematics feeds, dash and forward-facing camera footage and in-cab video are typically governed by the vendor’s or carrier’s own retention settings rather than by regulation. Camera footage is often overwritten on a cycle measured in days or weeks. If the tractor is repaired or sold, the physical evidence goes with it.
What a preservation letter does
A spoliation or litigation-hold letter, sent promptly and specifically, puts the carrier on notice of exactly what must be preserved: ELD and RODS data, supporting documents, ECM downloads, telematics, video, the driver qualification file, maintenance and inspection records, dispatch records, and the vehicle and trailer themselves in their post-crash condition.
What Texas courts do when evidence is destroyed
The Texas Supreme Court set the framework in Brookshire Brothers, Ltd. v. Aldridge, 438 S.W.3d 9 (Tex. 2014). The trial judge, not the jury, decides whether a party had a duty to preserve evidence and breached it; a spoliation instruction — telling the jury it may presume the missing evidence would have been unfavourable — is generally reserved for intentional destruction, or for negligent destruction that irreparably deprives the other side of any meaningful ability to present its claim. The duty to preserve arises when a party knows or reasonably should know there is a substantial chance a claim will be filed and that evidence in its possession will be material.
What that means in practice: a documented preservation demand, sent early, is what converts “the footage was overwritten” into a breach of a known duty. It is the difference between evidence that vanished and evidence that vanished after the carrier was told in writing to keep it.
How does Texas’s 51 percent bar work in a truck case?
The rule
Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001, a claimant may not recover if his or her percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. At 50 percent or below, the recovery is reduced by that percentage (§ 33.012). A driver found 30 percent at fault recovers 70 percent of his damages; a driver found 51 percent at fault recovers nothing. Texas is neither as forgiving as Mississippi’s pure comparative rule nor as harsh as the 50 percent bar in Tennessee and Arkansas, where reaching exactly half is fatal.
What gets argued against you
Following distance, speed, lane position, whether you were in a truck’s blind spot, whether you passed on the right, whether you were distracted. In underride cases, expect an argument about closing speed. None of these are conceded points; they are contested with reconstruction evidence, and the truck’s own data frequently helps rather than hurts. Because the difference between 50 and 51 percent is the difference between a recovery and nothing, insurers invest heavily in moving the number, and the reconstruction fight is worth having.
The empty chair
Because Texas lets defendants designate responsible third parties, they have a structural incentive to point at absent parties — a phantom vehicle, a maintenance shop, a loader, a road authority. Fault allocated to an empty chair reduces what the defendants in the room pay. Answering that argument requires having identified and, where appropriate, joined those parties early.
What insurance actually covers a Texas truck crash?
Texas minimums are for cars, not trucks
Texas’s minimum liability limits for ordinary vehicles are 30/60/25 under Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072 — $30,000 per person for bodily injury, $60,000 per crash, $25,000 for property damage. Those numbers are not what stands behind a tractor-trailer. The federal floor for a for-hire interstate carrier hauling general freight is $750,000, and layered coverage above that is common.
Layers, and why they take work to find
A serious truck case often involves a primary policy, one or more excess layers, and sometimes separate coverage for the trailer owner, the broker or the shipper. Insurers are not obliged to volunteer the full picture. Establishing the true limits typically requires formal discovery, and it materially changes the value of a case.
Your own coverage still matters
Texas insurers must offer uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, and it is part of every auto policy unless the insured rejects it in writing (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101). It can matter even against a commercial defendant — where a phantom vehicle contributed, or where the responsible party turns out to be an under-insured owner-operator rather than a well-covered fleet. Under Brainard v. Trinity Universal Ins. Co., 216 S.W.3d 809 (Tex. 2006), a UIM carrier owes nothing until the at-fault driver’s liability and underinsured status are established, which is why these claims are usually litigated rather than simply presented. Our Dallas y Houston uninsured motorist pages cover the details.
Liens and reimbursement
Health insurers, ERISA plans, Texas Medicaid, Medicare and hospital lien holders under Property Code Chapter 55 frequently assert reimbursement rights against a settlement. These are negotiated, not simply paid, and the outcome affects what actually reaches the injured person. They should be identified early rather than discovered at the end.
Which court will hear a Texas truck accident case?
Tribunal de Estado
Texas district courts hear serious personal injury cases. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 15.002, venue generally lies in the county where all or a substantial part of the events occurred, or where the defendant resides or keeps its principal office. For a crash on I-35E in Dallas County, that ordinarily means the Dallas County district courts; for a crash on the Katy Freeway, Harris County; for I-35 through Austin, Travis County.
Federal removal
Trucking defendants are very often out-of-state corporations. Where the parties are completely diverse and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, a defendant may remove the case to federal court — the Northern District of Texas at Dallas or Fort Worth, the Southern District at Houston, the Western District at Austin or San Antonio, or the Eastern District for the Tyler, Sherman and Beaumont corridors. Removal changes deadlines, procedure and the jury pool. It is a routine feature of trucking litigation rather than a surprise, and cases should be built with that possibility in view from the start.
What is a Texas truck accident claim worth?
Daños económicos
Past and future medical expenses, lost earnings, lost earning capacity and out-of-pocket costs. Economic damages are not capped in Texas. Note that § 41.0105 limits recovery of medical expenses to amounts actually paid or incurred, so the billed figure and the recoverable figure can differ. In cases involving spinal injury, traumatic brain injury or amputation, future care and lost capacity usually dominate and require expert proof.
Daños no económicos
Physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement and loss of consortium. Unlike Mississippi and Tennessee, Texas does no cap non-economic damages in an ordinary truck or car case; the statutory caps apply to medical malpractice and to claims against governmental units.
Punitive damages
Where a carrier’s conduct rises to gross negligence — a driver dispatched with a known hours violation, a truck sent out with documented brake defects — exemplary damages may be available under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.003, proven by clear and convincing evidence. They are capped under § 41.008(b) at the greater of $200,000 or twice the economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000.
What we will not tell you
No honest lawyer can give you a number for your case from a web page. Value depends on the injuries, the medical proof, the liability picture, the available coverage, the fault percentages a jury might assign and the venue. Anyone quoting you a figure before reviewing your records is guessing.
What should you do in the first weeks after a Texas truck crash?
- Get medical care and keep going. Gaps in treatment are the most common argument used to devalue a genuine injury.
- Get the crash report. The Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report (Form CR-3) is purchased through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System, usually available within about ten days. It identifies the carrier, the USDOT number and the insurer.
- Photograph everything while it exists. The vehicles, the scene, the trailer markings, the placards, your injuries.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the carrier’s insurer before you have advice. Those calls come early and they are not neutral. Our Texas guide to what not to say explains why.
- Get a preservation letter out. This is the step with a clock on it. Six months is the retention floor for the records that matter most.
- Keep your own record. Missed work, medications, what you cannot do now that you could do before.
Where we handle Texas truck cases
Statewide, from our Dallas office on N. Central Expressway y nuestra Houston office on Beltway 8, with dedicated local pages for Dallas truck accidents, Houston 18-wheeler accidents , Austin truck accidents y Fort Worth truck accidents. Related Texas pages: accidentes de coche, accidentes de motocicletas, Dallas wrongful death, Houston wrongful death, Dallas rear-end collisions, Houston rear-end collisions, Dallas uninsured motorist claims, Houston uninsured motorist claims. Our national truck accident page covers the federal framework in more depth.
Frequently asked questions about Texas truck accidents
How long do I have to file a truck accident lawsuit in Texas?
Generally two years from the date of the crash under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. If a government vehicle or government road is involved, the Texas Tort Claims Act requires written notice within six months under § 101.101, and some city charters shorten that further. The evidence that proves a truck case can lawfully be discarded after six months, so the practical deadline is much shorter.
Can I still recover if I was partly at fault for the truck crash?
Yes, as long as your share of responsibility is not greater than 50 percent. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001 a claimant whose responsibility exceeds 50 percent recovers nothing; at 50 percent or below, the recovery is reduced by that percentage.
If several parties caused the crash, does one of them have to pay everything?
Only if that party’s share of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. Under § 33.013 a defendant found more than 50 percent responsible is jointly and severally liable for the whole judgment; otherwise each defendant pays only its own percentage. Fault assigned to a designated responsible third party who is not in the case reduces the recovery.
How much insurance does a semi truck have to carry in Texas?
A for-hire motor carrier operating in interstate commerce with a vehicle rated over 10,000 pounds must carry at least $750,000 for non-hazardous property under 49 C.F.R. § 387.9, rising to $5,000,000 for certain hazardous materials. Texas’s own minimum for passenger vehicles is only 30/60/25 under Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072.
How long does a trucking company have to keep the driver’s logs?
A carrier must retain a back-up copy of electronic logging device records for six months under 49 C.F.R. § 395.22, and supporting documents for six months under § 395.11. Because Texas’s filing deadline is two years, the records can lawfully be gone long before the deadline to sue has passed.
What happens if the trucking company destroys the evidence?
Under Brookshire Brothers v. Aldridge, 438 S.W.3d 9 (Tex. 2014), the judge decides whether a duty to preserve was breached, and can instruct the jury to presume the missing evidence was unfavourable where the destruction was intentional or left the other side unable to prove its case. A written preservation letter sent early makes that remedy far easier to obtain.
How many hours can a truck driver legally drive?
Under 49 C.F.R. § 395.3, a property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, and may not drive after 8 cumulative hours without a 30-minute break. Weekly limits are 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days.
Who can be sued besides the truck driver?
Depending on the facts: the motor carrier, the owner of the tractor or trailer, a freight broker, a shipper or party responsible for loading, a maintenance contractor, and a component manufacturer. Because Texas allocates fault by percentage and lets defendants point at absent parties, identifying every responsible party early affects what can actually be recovered.
Is there a cap on damages in a Texas truck accident case?
No cap applies to economic or non-economic compensatory damages in an ordinary truck case. Caps apply to claims against governmental units under the Texas Tort Claims Act and to exemplary damages, which § 41.008 limits to the greater of $200,000 or twice the economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000.
Should I talk to the trucking company’s insurance adjuster?
Not before you have advice. Commercial carriers and their insurers typically begin investigating within hours of a serious crash. You are under no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer, and statements given while medicated or in pain are used later.
Will my Texas truck accident case go to federal court?
It may. Out-of-state trucking defendants can remove a case to the Northern, Southern, Western or Eastern District of Texas when the parties are completely diverse and more than $75,000 is in controversy. Removal changes procedure and the jury pool but not the substantive Texas law that applies.
What does it cost to hire a Texas truck accident lawyer?
We handle these cases on a contingency fee: no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. Consultations are free and available 24/7 at 469-253-2533 in Dallas or 346-299-8430 in Houston. The fee agreement is provided in writing and explained before you sign anything.
Iniciar su revisión de caso gratis
Tell us what happened and we will call you back — usually within minutes during business hours. Free consultation, no fee unless we win.
This page is legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, regulations and case law change; every case turns on its own facts. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Reviewed by Larry “Jimmy” Peters, Founder, Southern Injury Attorneys, Texas Bar No. 24113438. Texas matters are handled from the firm’s offices at 4245 N. Central Expressway, Suite 490, Dallas, Texas 75205 and 340 N. Sam Houston Parkway E., Suite A1045, Houston, Texas 77060.
