A truck accident lawsuit is a civil claim against the driver, the trucking company and any other business whose mistakes contributed to a crash with a commercial truck. These cases differ from ordinary car crash claims in three ways: federal safety rules, including the hours of service limits on how long drivers can work, set a clear standard of care; there are often several defendants with separate insurance policies; and the most important evidence sits in the trucking company's own systems, where it may not be kept for long.
Key points
- Federal hours of service rules limit property-carrying drivers to 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window after 10 hours off duty, plus weekly caps of 60 or 70 hours.
- Violations of federal motor carrier rules (hours, drug and alcohol testing, inspections, driver qualifications) are common evidence of negligence in truck cases.
- The trucking company is often liable along with the driver, and shippers, maintenance contractors and parts makers may share responsibility.
- Interstate carriers of general freight must carry at least $750,000 in liability insurance, and more for hazardous materials.
- Engine data and electronic logs can disappear. Carriers only have to keep hours-of-service records for six months, so send a preservation letter early.
- Deadlines are set by state law. A lawyer licensed in the state where the crash happened should confirm yours.
Why truck crashes are different
A loaded tractor-trailer is many times heavier than a passenger vehicle and needs far more distance to stop, which is why crashes involving large trucks so often cause catastrophic or fatal injuries to the people in the smaller vehicle. Trucking is also a regulated industry. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) sets rules for interstate carriers covering driver qualifications, medical fitness, drug and alcohol testing, vehicle inspection and maintenance, cargo securement and hours of service. Many states apply the same or similar rules to trucks that operate only within the state.
Those rules matter in a lawsuit because they define what a careful carrier and driver were supposed to do. When a crash investigation shows a driver was over hours, a carrier skipped required maintenance or a company hired a driver with a disqualifying record, the violation is strong evidence of negligence. Our personal injury guide explains the basic negligence elements that every injury case requires.
Federal hours of service rules
Fatigue is one of the most studied risks in trucking, and the hours of service rules in 49 CFR Part 395 are the main federal limit on it. For drivers of property-carrying commercial vehicles, the core rules are:
| Rule | Limit |
|---|---|
| Driving limit | Up to 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty |
| 14-hour window | No driving after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty; off-duty breaks generally do not extend this window |
| 30-minute break | Required after 8 cumulative hours of driving without a 30-minute interruption; off-duty, sleeper berth or on-duty not-driving time counts |
| Weekly limits | No driving after 60 hours on duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 days if the carrier operates every day |
| 34-hour restart | 34 or more consecutive hours off duty can restart the 7- or 8-day period |
| Sleeper berth split | The 10-hour break can be split into two periods if one is at least 7 hours in the sleeper berth, neither is under 2 hours, and they total at least 10; qualifying periods do not count against the 14-hour window |
| Adverse driving conditions | Up to 2 additional hours of driving when unexpected conditions such as snow or a road closure make it unsafe to stop on schedule |
| Short-haul exception | Drivers who stay within a 150 air-mile radius and are released within 14 hours can skip the 30-minute break and detailed logs |
Passenger-carrying drivers, such as bus drivers, follow different limits, including a 10-hour driving limit after 8 hours off duty.
How hours violations show up in a case
Most interstate drivers record their hours with electronic logging devices (ELDs) that connect to the truck's engine and record driving time automatically. Those records can be compared with fuel receipts, toll records, delivery times, GPS data and phone records. Gaps or edits in the logs, deliveries that were impossible to make legally, and dispatch messages pushing a driver to keep going can all show that the carrier allowed or encouraged fatigued driving.
Pilot programs are not rule changes
In 2026 FMCSA tested pilot programs that would give some drivers more sleeper berth options and let them pause the 14-hour window. The agency described a full launch as planned for 2027. Pilot programs apply only to approved participants, and the rules in the table remain the standard for drivers generally unless and until FMCSA changes them through rulemaking. Check the current rules if a crash happened after any announced change.
Other federal rules that come up often
Beyond hours of service, truck cases frequently involve:
- Alcohol and drugs. Commercial drivers may not perform safety-sensitive work with an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or higher, half the usual limit for other drivers, and carriers must run pre-employment, random and post-accident testing programs. If alcohol is involved, our drunk driving accident guide explains how impaired-driver claims work.
- Driver qualification. Carriers must keep a file on each driver with a road test or equivalent, a medical certificate, driving record checks and employment history. A missing or stale file can support a negligent hiring or retention claim.
- Inspection and maintenance. Carriers must inspect, repair and maintain vehicles and keep records. Brake and tire failures often trace back to skipped maintenance.
- Cargo securement and weight. Shifting or overweight loads can cause rollovers and jackknifes, which can bring the shipper or loading company into the case.
Who can be liable
Truck crashes often involve several companies, and finding all of them can make a large difference in how much insurance is available.
The driver and the motor carrier
The driver is responsible for their own negligence. The motor carrier that operated the truck is usually responsible for the driver's conduct on the job, and it can also be directly liable for its own failures, such as hiring an unqualified driver, setting schedules that require hours violations or neglecting maintenance. Carriers sometimes argue that a driver was an independent contractor, but federal rules generally make the carrier whose operating authority the truck runs under responsible for the vehicle's operation.
Other companies
Depending on the facts, claims may also run against:
- The owner of the tractor or trailer, if different from the carrier
- A shipper or loader that overloaded or improperly secured cargo
- A maintenance or repair contractor
- The manufacturer of a defective tire, brake component or underride guard
- A freight broker, in some cases, though broker liability is contested and courts are divided on how far it reaches
- A government agency or contractor responsible for a dangerous road or work zone, often with short notice deadlines
Work zone crashes can injure road crews as well as drivers, and those workers' claims are covered in our guide to construction accident lawsuits.
Insurance minimums
Federal rules in 49 CFR 387.9 set minimum public liability coverage for motor carriers operating vehicles over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating:
| Type of carriage | Minimum coverage |
|---|---|
| For-hire carriers of nonhazardous property in interstate commerce | $750,000 |
| Oil, hazardous waste and many other hazardous materials | $1,000,000 |
| Certain hazardous substances in bulk, bulk explosives and some radioactive or toxic materials | $5,000,000 |
Some hazardous loads in smaller vehicles also require $5 million. These are floors, not ceilings: many carriers carry excess or umbrella policies well above them. Passenger carriers have separate minimums.
The evidence that decides truck cases
Engine data and electronic logs
Most heavy trucks have an engine control module, often called the black box, which can record speed, throttle, braking, cruise control use and fault codes around a hard-braking event or crash. Many fleets also use telematics, forward-facing and driver-facing cameras, and collision mitigation systems that log alerts. ELD data shows the driver's duty status in detail.
Company records
Dispatch communications, trip records, driver qualification files, maintenance and inspection reports, drug and alcohol test results and prior crash history all sit with the carrier. Federal rules only require carriers to keep hours-of-service records and supporting documents for six months, and other data may be overwritten even sooner.
Spoliation letters
That is why the first step in most truck cases is a spoliation or preservation letter, sent to the carrier and its insurer as soon as possible, demanding that the truck, its electronic data, logs, video and records be preserved. If a lawsuit is necessary, a court can order inspection of the truck and download of its data. When a carrier destroys evidence after being put on notice, courts in many states can impose sanctions, including telling the jury it may assume the evidence would have been unfavorable.
Police and FMCSA crash reports, scene photographs, witness statements and an independent crash reconstruction round out the evidence.
Damages and fatal crashes
Compensation in a truck case covers medical care, rehabilitation, lost income, future care needs, pain and suffering and property damage, the same categories as any injury claim. Punitive damages may be available in some states when a carrier knowingly put a dangerous driver or truck on the road. When a crash is fatal, the family's claim proceeds as a wrongful death lawsuit under state law, which sets who may file and what can be recovered.
Shared fault rules also matter. If the defense argues that the car driver cut off the truck or stopped suddenly, the state's comparative fault rule decides whether and how much the award is reduced, as our guide to personal injury claims explains.
Deadlines
Truck crash claims follow the statute of limitations of the state where the case is filed, which usually ranges from one to six years, with two or three years most common. Claims against government entities usually require written notice within a much shorter period, and wrongful death claims can have their own deadline. Because the evidence problem arrives long before the legal deadline, the practical deadline in a truck case is often measured in days or weeks.
Laws change and deadlines vary, so confirm yours with a lawyer licensed in the state where the crash happened. For a detailed look at how these claims are built, see this explainer on filing a truck accident lawsuit. For crashes where a driver had been drinking at a bar before getting behind the wheel, our dram shop liability guide explains when the seller can be responsible. Our editorial standards explain how we verify the rules described here.