By Joshua A. Estes. Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law — Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
If someone in your family was hit by a commercial truck in Texas, here is the short version. The trucking company already knows about the crash. Its investigators may have been at the scene the same day. Some of the most important evidence in the case sits on the truck’s own computer, and it does not last forever. This guide explains what expires, roughly how fast, and what a family can do this week without making any decision they cannot undo.
You do not have to become an expert on any of this. You do have to know that the clock is running, because nobody from the other side is going to tell you.
Why a truck case is not a car case
A car crash usually has two drivers, two insurers, and a police report. A commercial truck crash can have a driver, a trucking company, a separate company that owned the trailer, a broker who arranged the load, the shipper, a maintenance contractor, and several insurers who each want a different outcome.
That matters for one practical reason: the evidence is scattered across companies that are not required to hand it to you, and much of it lives on systems that overwrite themselves in the normal course of business.
The evidence that expires
The engine control module (the “black box”). Most modern tractors record data such as speed, throttle, brake application, and hard-braking events in the seconds before a crash. The unit stays with the truck. If the truck is repaired and returned to service, that data can be overwritten by ordinary driving. If the truck is totaled and sold at salvage, the module can leave with it.
Hours-of-service records. Most interstate truck drivers log duty status on an electronic logging device. Under federal rules, motor carriers are required to retain records of duty status and the supporting documents that back them up for six months. Six months sounds long. It is not, when a family spends the first two of those months in a hospital. (See 49 CFR 395.8.)
Dashcam and telematics video. Many fleets run forward-facing and driver-facing cameras. Retention is set by company policy, not by law, and short retention windows are common. This is often the first thing to disappear.
Post-crash drug and alcohol testing. Federal regulations require post-accident testing in certain defined situations, and they set tight windows: alcohol testing is to be done within hours of the crash, and controlled-substance testing within a longer but still short window. If the window closes without a test, it generally cannot be recreated later. (See 49 CFR 382.303.)
The driver qualification file. Federal rules require carriers to keep a file on each driver, covering things like the driver’s application, license, road test, and safety performance history. It is retained on a schedule tied to employment. (See 49 CFR Part 391.)
Physical evidence. The truck, the trailer, the tires, the load and how it was secured. All of it gets repaired, re-tarped, redistributed, or scrapped.
What a preservation letter does
A lawyer representing the injured person can send the trucking company and its insurer a written demand to preserve specific categories of evidence: the black box download, the logs, the video, the maintenance records, the load documents, the truck itself. In Texas, a party that destroys evidence after being told to keep it can face consequences in the lawsuit.
This is the single most time-sensitive thing that happens in a truck case, and it is the reason families are told to move quickly. Not to sign quickly. To preserve quickly.
The rapid-response team
Large carriers and their insurers keep investigators on call who can be at a serious crash scene within hours. They photograph, measure, download data, and interview witnesses while everything is fresh. That is not sinister. It is competent, and it is their job.
Understand what it means for a family: by the time the hospital lets you sleep, the other side may already have a complete record of the scene, and you may have none of it. If someone calls offering to help with the vehicle, with expenses, or with a quick statement about what happened, they work for that side of the case.
What to do this week
- Take care of the person who is hurt. Everything else is second, and none of it moves faster than the medicine.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company’s insurer. You are not required to. “Please put your questions in writing” is a complete and polite answer.
- Write down what you know while it is fresh. Time, location, direction of travel, weather, the company name and DOT number off the truck door, the trailer number, the names of any officers and witnesses. Photograph anything you already have.
- Save everything. Hospital paperwork, the clothes and shoes worn in the crash, the damaged phone, receipts, the towing notice. A shoebox is a fine system.
- Get the crash report. Texas law enforcement must submit the crash report to TxDOT no later than the tenth day after the date of the crash. Once it is in the system, a copy can be purchased through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System. A regular copy is $6, and a certified copy, the kind used in legal proceedings, is $8.
- Find out where the truck is going. Salvage yard, repair shop, back on the road. That one answer determines how urgent the preservation step is.
- Talk to a lawyer before signing anything. Not necessarily to hire one. To find out whether the evidence in this particular case is at risk this week, and what it would take to stop that. In Texas, injury consultations on a contingent fee are free, so the answer costs nothing either way.
Common questions
How long do trucking companies keep driver logs? Federal rules set a six-month retention floor for records of duty status and supporting documents. Company policies for video and telematics are usually much shorter and are set by the company, not the government.
Is the driver the only one responsible? Not necessarily. Depending on the facts, claims can involve the driver, the motor carrier, and other companies in the chain. Who belongs in a case is a fact question that gets answered by the records.
How long do I have to file in Texas? Generally two years from the date of the crash, with important exceptions, including much shorter notice deadlines when a government entity is involved. Confirm your own deadline with a lawyer rather than calculating it yourself.
What if my family member died in the crash? Texas wrongful death and survival claims have their own rules about who may bring them. The evidence clock described above is identical, and in a fatality case the trucking company’s response is usually faster.
We already talked to the insurance company. Did we ruin it? Probably not. People talk to insurers every day and still have claims. Tell your lawyer exactly what was said and signed, and do it early rather than late.
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines in injury cases are strict and fact-specific. Talk to a lawyer about your own situation.
The Estes Law Firm, P.C. · 716 S. Union St, Richmond, Texas 77469 · (281) 238-5400 · Responsible attorney: William F. Estes.