Truck Accident Lawyer

Reviewed by Larry Peters, Procurador licenciado en Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky y Georgia · Última revisión: junio 2026

Truck Accident Claims at a Glance

Truck Accident Statistics

Fuente: NHTSA FARS, Large Trucks: 2023 Data (DOT HS 813 717, April 2025).

In 2023, 5,472 people were killed and an estimated 153,452 injured in crashes involving large trucks. The defining fact of these crashes is the size mismatch: a loaded tractor-trailer can weigh up to 80.000 libras — roughly 20 to 30 times a typical passenger car — so when a truck and a car collide, it is overwhelmingly the people in the smaller vehicle who pay. In 2023, 70 percent of those killed were occupants of other vehicles and another 12 percent were pedestrians or cyclists. Only 18 percent were in the truck.

Truck-crash deaths are also rising. Over the decade from 2014 to 2023, the number of people killed in crashes involving large trucks climbed about 40 percent, even as overall driving got safer in some other categories.

Why Are Truck Accidents Different From Car Accidents?

A car crash is one driver against another. A truck crash is a case against a federally regulated industry — and that changes the defendants, the evidence, and the insurance. Three things set a truck case apart: (1) trucking is governed by federal safety law, so breaking a rule can be negligencia per se; (2) there are usually many more defendants than in a car case, which is where the bigger recoveries come from; and (3) the insurance is far larger — a federal minimum of $750,000 and often $1 million or more.

Start with federal regulation. Commercial trucking is governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (the FMCSA rules, 49 CFR): limits on how many hours a driver can be behind the wheel, electronic logging of those hours, commercial licensing and medical certification, mandatory drug and alcohol testing, vehicle inspection and maintenance standards, cargo-securement rules, and weight limits. When a trucking company or driver violates one of these rules and that violation causes a crash, it can be treated as negligencia per se — meaning the rule itself helps establish fault. That is a powerful tool you simply do not have in an ordinary fender-bender.

Then there is the exposure-versus-harm picture, which is the real reason these cases matter so much. Large trucks are only about 5 percent of registered vehicles and around 10 percent of the miles driven, yet they figure in roughly 11 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths. A small slice of traffic does an outsized share of the killing — and, because of the weight disparity, almost all of that harm lands on people in cars, on motorcycles, on bikes, and on foot.

Finally, the danger is physical. The height and weight of a tractor-trailer create hazards a normal car crash never produces — underride crashes, where a smaller vehicle slides beneath the truck’s trailer and the passenger compartment is sheared off, and “no-zone” blind-spot collisions, where the truck driver simply cannot see a car beside or behind the trailer. These mechanics are why truck-crash injuries are so often catastrophic or fatal.

Who Is Liable for a Truck Accident?

Often several parties at once — and identifying every one of them is what maximizes your recovery. Unlike a car crash, where you usually sue one driver, a truck case can involve the driver, the porta motores (the trucking company), the truck or trailer owner, the shipper or cargo loader, a maintenance contractor, a parts manufacturer, and sometimes the freight broker. Each defendant means another potential insurance policy.

The key target in most cases is the porta motores. A trucking company is vicariously liable for its driver’s negligence on the job — but it can also be directly liable for its own conduct: negligent hiring, training, supervision, retention, and entrustment. If the company put an unqualified or dangerous driver on the road, pressured drivers to skip required rest, or ignored a bad safety record, that is the company’s own negligence. The other possible defendants:

• El conductor del camión — for fatigue, speeding, distraction, impairment, or any unsafe driving that caused the crash.
• The truck or trailer owner — when the tractor or the trailer is owned or leased by a different company than the one operating it.
• The shipper or cargo loader — for an overweight, unbalanced, or improperly secured load that shifts, falls, or makes the truck unstable.
• A maintenance contractor — for bad brakes, bald tires, or skipped inspections on a truck that someone else was paid to service.
• A parts manufacturer — for a defective brake, tire, or coupling that failed.
• The freight broker — in some cases, for hiring an unsafe or unfit carrier to move the load.

Sorting out who is responsible is not something you can do from the police report alone. It takes the trucking company’s records, the truck’s data, and an investigation that starts before any of it can be lost.

What Federal Trucking Regulations Apply — and How Do They Prove My Case?

Commercial trucks operate under a detailed federal rulebook, and each rule is a potential way to prove fault. The most important ones:

• Hours-of-service (HOS) limits and ELDs. Federal rules cap how long a driver can drive — generally up to 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window — to prevent fatigue, and an Electronic Logging Device records those hours automatically. Driving over the limit, or falsifying the logs, is a violation that an ELD can expose.
• Commercial licensing and medical certification. Drivers must hold a valid commercial driver’s license for the class of vehicle and pass periodic medical exams. Letting an unqualified or medically disqualified driver operate the truck points straight back at the carrier.
• Drug and alcohol testing. Commercial drivers are subject to pre-employment, random, and post-crash testing, and operating at a BAC of .04 — half the limit for ordinary drivers — is a federal violation.
• Inspection and maintenance. Carriers must systematically inspect, repair, and maintain their trucks and keep records of it. Bad brakes and worn tires are recurring causes of truck crashes.
• Cargo securement and weight limits. Loads must be properly secured and within legal weight limits; an unsecured or overweight load changes how a truck stops and handles.

This is the heart of why a truck case is winnable in ways a car case is not. When the evidence shows a carrier broke one of these federal rules and the violation caused the crash, many courts treat it as negligencia per se — the violation itself helps establish the defendant’s fault. The catch is that the proof lives in records the trucking company holds, which is the next section.

What Evidence Wins a Truck Accident Case?

Truck cases are won on records the carrier controls — and federal rules let the company destroy some of them on a schedule. The ELD / hours-of-service logs only have to be kept for seis meses; the truck’s engine data can be overwritten the moment the truck is repaired or put back in service. That is why a spoliation / evidence-preservation letter must go out immediately, before anything is erased.

The evidence that decides a truck case includes the ELD and hours-of-service logs (was the driver over the legal limit?), the truck’s ECM or engine “black box” (speed, braking, and throttle in the final seconds), dashcam and telematics data, the driver-qualification file (should this driver have been hired at all?), maintenance and inspection records, el bill of lading and cargo records, el post-crash drug and alcohol test, and the carrier’s FMCSA safety record — its CSA / SMS scores and any prior violations. Federal rules require only some of this to be kept, and only for a limited time, so a lawyer’s first job is to send a preservation letter that puts the company on legal notice not to destroy any of it. Wait too long, and the most important proof can be gone before a lawsuit is ever filed.

What Causes Truck Accidents?

Truck crashes usually trace to a mix of driver, company, and equipment failures. The most common contributing factors:

• Driver fatigue — long hours behind the wheel, often pushed by delivery pressure and sometimes in violation of hours-of-service rules.
• Distracted, impaired, or aggressive driving — texting, drowsiness, and speeding for conditions.
• Improper loading or a shifting load — cargo that is overweight, unbalanced, or poorly secured.
• Brake, tire, and maintenance failures — the federal Large Truck Crash Causation Study found brake problems were the most frequently coded factor, present in about 29 percent of the trucks studied, with traveling too fast for conditions (23%) and driver fatigue (13%) also prominent (FMCSA, 2006 — the most recent comprehensive causation study).
• Contratación y supervisión necesarias — putting an unqualified, unsafe, or under-rested driver on the road.
• Wide turns, blind spots, and underride — the truck’s “no-zones” and the height of the trailer create collisions a car simply cannot.

Because so many of these causes lead back to the company’s own choices — its scheduling, its hiring, its maintenance — a thorough investigation often turns what looks like “the driver’s mistake” into a claim against the carrier itself.

Truck Accident Injuries

The size and weight disparity is exactly why truck-crash injuries are among the most severe in all of personal-injury law. Occupants of the smaller vehicle routinely suffer traumatismo cerebral, spinal cord injuries and paralysis, amputations, internal organ damage, severe burns (including fuel and cargo fires), and the catastrophic trauma of an underride crash. Far too many truck crashes are fatal. These are life-changing injuries that often require surgery, long hospital stays, and a lifetime of care — so valuing the case correctly means accounting for the full future cost of medical treatment and lost earning capacity, not the first number an insurer puts on the table. When a crash is fatal, the family can pursue a incumplimiento de la muerte.

¿Qué pasa si yo estaba en parte por la culpa?

You can usually still recover. Trucking companies and their insurers move fast to pin blame on the other driver, but every state we serve uses some form of negligencia comparativa, so being partly at fault generally reduces your recovery rather than eliminating it.

Because insurers use fault arguments to cut payouts, how the case is investigated and presented can change your recovery dramatically.

How Much Is a Truck Accident Case Worth?

There is no fixed average — truck cases run higher than ordinary car-accident cases precisely because the injuries are so often catastrophic and because there is usually more than one defendant and more than one insurance policy. Value depends on the severity of the injuries, the full cost of future medical care and lost earning capacity, and how many sources of recovery your lawyer can identify: the driver, the motor carrier, the truck or trailer owner, the shipper, a maintenance contractor, and a parts maker can all contribute, and interstate carriers carry far higher policy limits than ordinary drivers — a federal minimum of $750,000 and frequently $1 million or more. When the at-fault party is uninsured or underinsured, your own cobertura motorista no asegurada o asegurada is another source. Getting the value right means identifying every defendant and proving the full lifetime cost of the injuries.

What to Do After a Truck Accident

1. Call 911 and get the crash report so officers document the scene, the vehicles’ positions, and the truck while everything is fresh.
2. Get medical care immediately, even if you feel okay — serious truck-crash injuries are often masked by adrenaline at first.
3. Fotografía todo — the trucks, the scene, the damage, the license plates, and especially the USDOT number and the carrier’s name on the side of the truck.
4. Get the truck’s identifying information — the USDOT number, the trucking company’s name, and the driver’s name and information.
5. Identificar testigos and write down their names and phone numbers before they leave.
6. Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company’s insurer or to the adjuster who often shows up fast at the scene.
7. Call a truck accident lawyer immediately so a preservation letter can lock down the ELD logs and the black box before they are erased.

Our Results in Serious Truck Accident Cases

Every case is different, but our results reflect how hard we fight for truck-crash victims:

• Six-figure recovery — Our client was stopped in traffic when an 18-wheeler failed to stop in time and rear-ended them.
• Six-figure settlement — An 18-wheeler pushed our client into a barrier wall, causing her injuries.
• $175,000 settlement — Our client’s Mercedes was rear-ended and caught fire; even with minimal medical treatment, we recovered $175,000.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts.

¿Por qué elegir Fiscales de Lesiones del Sur

Truck litigation is our focus. We are a contingency-fee injury firm with attorneys licensed in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia, and we treat a truck crash for what it is — a case against a federally regulated industry. We move fast to send preservation letters, pull the ELD logs, the black-box data, the driver-qualification file, and the carrier’s FMCSA safety record, and identify every defendant and policy that can contribute to your recovery. We also handle the related crashes that often involve trucks, including accidentes de coche, accidentes de tránsito, y colisiones. You pay nothing unless we win. If your crash happened in Memphis, see our dedicated Memphis camión de abogados page. For truck crashes anywhere else in Tennessee, see our Tennessee accidente de camión abogados página.

Headquarters: 5865 Ridgeway Center Pkwy, Suite 390, Memphis, TN 38120, with offices in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta. Consultations are free and handled by phone anywhere we practice: 800-224-5546.

Deadlines to File a Truck Accident Claim

The deadline to sue — the statute of limitations — is set by state law, even though trucking itself is federally regulated. A truck crash is a motor-vehicle case, so the motor-vehicle deadline applies. Miss it and the claim is gone, so it is critical to talk to a lawyer early.

One important exception: if a government-owned truck (a city, county, or state vehicle) was involved, you usually have to file a formal notice of claim within a much shorter window — sometimes only a few months — long before the normal deadline. Because trucking evidence disappears quickly and these deadlines are unforgiving, the safest course is to talk to a lawyer right away.

Where We Serve — Truck Accident Lawyers Across Six States

We represent truck-crash victims throughout Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia. If your crash happened in or near one of these cities, our local truck accident teams can help:

• Tennessee: Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, y Knoxville.
• Mississippi: Jackson.
• Arkansas: Little Rock.
• Texas: Austin, Dallas, y Houston.
• Georgia: Atlanta.

Truck Accident FAQs

Who can be sued after a truck accident?

Often several parties at once. Besides the driver, you may be able to sue the trucking company (the motor carrier), the truck or trailer owner, the shipper or company that loaded the cargo, a maintenance contractor, the manufacturer of a defective part, and sometimes the freight broker. Identifying every responsible party is what maximizes your recovery, because each one can bring another insurance policy to the table.

Is the trucking company liable for its driver?

Usually yes. A motor carrier is vicariously liable for the negligence of a driver acting in the course of employment. It can also be directly liable for its own conduct — negligent hiring, training, supervision, retention, or entrustment — if it put an unqualified or dangerous driver on the road, pressured drivers to break hours-of-service rules, or ignored a poor safety record. The company is often the most important defendant in the case.

What are hours-of-service rules?

Hours-of-service (HOS) rules are federal limits on how long a commercial driver can be on duty and behind the wheel — generally up to 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window — designed to prevent fatigue. Drivers must log their hours with an Electronic Logging Device. Driving past the limit, or falsifying the logs, is a federal violation, and an ELD can prove it. A violation that causes a crash can be treated as negligence per se.

What is the truck’s black box or ELD, and why does it matter?

A truck carries two key data sources. The ELD (Electronic Logging Device) records the driver’s hours of service. The ECM, or engine “black box,” records data like speed, braking, and throttle in the seconds before a crash. Together they can show whether the driver was over the legal limit and how the truck was being operated at impact. Both can disappear quickly — ELD logs only have to be kept six months, and engine data can be overwritten when the truck is repaired — so they must be preserved immediately.

How much insurance do trucking companies carry?

Far more than ordinary drivers. Interstate carriers must carry a federal minimum of $750,000 in liability coverage for general freight under 49 CFR 387.9 — a figure set in 1980 — and many carry $1 million or more, with higher minimums for hazardous materials. By contrast, state auto-insurance minimums are typically in the tens of thousands. Those larger policies, plus the chance of multiple defendants, are why truck cases can be worth substantially more than car cases.

What if the truck driver was fatigued or on drugs?

That can be powerful evidence of fault. Fatigue and impairment are leading causes of truck crashes, and commercial drivers are subject to strict federal hours-of-service limits and to pre-employment, random, and post-crash drug and alcohol testing. If the ELD logs show the driver was over the hours limit, or a post-crash test was positive, that violation can help establish negligence — and may also point to the company that allowed it.

What evidence should be preserved after a truck crash?

The case-winning evidence is mostly in the trucking company’s hands: the ELD and hours-of-service logs, the ECM black-box data, dashcam and telematics, the driver-qualification file, maintenance and inspection records, the bill of lading, the post-crash drug test, and the carrier’s FMCSA safety record. Federal rules let some of it be destroyed on a schedule, so a lawyer’s first step is to send a spoliation letter putting the company on notice not to erase any of it.

What if I was partly at fault for the truck accident?

You can usually still recover. Every state we serve uses comparative negligence, so being partly at fault generally reduces your recovery rather than eliminating it. In Tennessee, Arkansas, and Georgia you can recover if you are less than 50% at fault; Texas bars recovery only above 50%; and Mississippi and Kentucky let you recover even if you are mostly at fault, with the award reduced by your share. Insurers exaggerate a victim’s fault to cut payouts, so how the case is presented matters.

How long do I have to file a truck accident lawsuit?

It depends on the state, and the deadline is set by state law even though trucking is federally regulated: one year in Tennessee, two years in Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia, and three years in Mississippi and Arkansas. If a government-owned truck was involved, a much shorter notice-of-claim deadline can apply. Because trucking evidence disappears fast, you should not wait near the deadline to get help.

¿Cuál es mi caso de accidente de camión vale?

There is no fixed average. Truck cases tend to be worth more than car cases because the injuries are often catastrophic and because there are usually multiple defendants and larger insurance policies. Value turns on the severity of the injuries, the full cost of future medical care and lost earnings, and how many sources of recovery — driver, carrier, owner, shipper, maintenance contractor, parts maker, and your own underinsured-motorist coverage — your lawyer can identify and prove.

Should I talk to the trucking company’s insurer?

Not before talking to your own lawyer. Trucking insurers and rapid-response adjusters often contact victims within hours, hoping to get a recorded statement or a quick, low settlement before the injuries are fully known. You are generally not required to give the other side’s insurer a recorded statement, and anything you say can be used to reduce your claim. Let your lawyer handle communications with the carrier and its insurer.

How much does a truck accident lawyer cost?

Nothing up front. We work on contingency — our fee comes out of the recovery, and you owe nothing unless we win. That matters even more in truck cases, where preserving evidence and retaining experts takes resources most people don’t have. Consultations are always free.

Talk to a Truck Accident Lawyer — Free

If you or someone you love was hurt by an 18-wheeler, semi, or other large truck, the most important steps — preserving the ELD logs and black box and meeting the deadlines — have to happen now. Get a free, no-obligation consultation with attorneys licensed in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia. Call 800-224-5546 — no fee unless you win. You can also contactarnos en línea.

This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Every case is different and outcomes are never guaranteed. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.