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A collision with a loaded 18-wheeler is not simply a car crash with bigger vehicles. Federal safety rules, commercial insurance policies, and short record-retention clocks all shape what an injured person can prove. The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers handle commercial vehicle claims across Texas, from the first preservation letter through trial.
Our attorneys work under both the federal regulations that govern motor carriers and the Texas statutes that apply to companies hauling freight inside the state. If a tractor-trailer, box truck, tanker, or delivery vehicle injured you or someone in your family, a Texas truck accident lawyer can explain the legal options available to you. Call (972) 529-3476 to speak with our team about your case.
Commercial carriers move quickly after a serious collision. Their insurers, safety directors, and defense counsel often open a file within hours. Our team works on the same timeline.
We handle the investigative work a trucking claim requires:
Our record in Texas injury litigation includes:
Commercial vehicle collisions are a constant presence on Texas roads. The Texas Department of Transportation counted 39,393 crashes involving a commercial motor vehicle statewide in 2024. Those crashes included 546 fatal collisions and caused 608 deaths.
Another 1,261 crashes produced a suspected serious injury, and 1,601 people were seriously hurt. Cases at that scale rarely turn on the police report alone. They turn on the records a carrier must create and keep.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations impose concrete duties on carriers and drivers. A violation does not decide a case by itself; however, it can supply powerful evidence of negligence when the rule governs the conduct that caused the collision.
Federal law treats loading as a safety function, not a formality. Under 49 CFR 393.100, a securement system must prevent cargo from leaking, spilling, blowing, or falling from the vehicle, and must prevent shifting that affects stability or handling.
The performance standard is specific. Securement must hold under 0.8 g of forward deceleration and 0.5 g of rearward and lateral acceleration. Cargo that is not fully contained by the vehicle structure also requires downward force equal to at least 20 percent of its weight.
Drivers also have an inspection duty. Under 49 CFR 392.9, a driver must inspect the cargo and securement devices within the first 50 miles of a trip. Re-examination is then required at a change of duty status, after 3 hours of driving, or after 150 miles, whichever occurs first.
Maintenance paperwork has a short life. Under 49 CFR 396.11, a driver must prepare a written inspection report after each day's work, covering:
The carrier must keep that report, the repair certification, and the driver's review certification for 3 months from the date the report was prepared. A claim that begins a year after the collision may find those documents already gone.
A carrier's hiring file is often more revealing than the crash report. Under 49 CFR 391.51, the driver qualification file must hold the employment application, motor vehicle records from the licensing authority, road test certification, annual review notes, and the medical examiner's certificate. The carrier must retain that file for as long as the driver is employed and for 3 years after employment ends.
Fitness is an ongoing obligation, not a one-time hiring decision. Under 49 CFR 392.3, a motor carrier may not require or permit a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle while the driver's ability or alertness is impaired.
Federal regulation is not the whole picture. A carrier operating in Texas also answers to state registration and insurance requirements.
Texas Transportation Code Section 643.101 requires a registered motor carrier to maintain liability insurance for each vehicle it operates, in an amount set by department rule. Those amounts appear in 43 Texas Administrative Code Section 218.16, and they scale with the vehicle and the cargo:
Identifying the applicable category early matters. Available coverage shapes what a serious injury claim can realistically resolve for, long before any negotiation begins.
Most truck accident claims reach the carrier through its driver. In Painter v. Amerimex Drilling I, Ltd., the Texas Supreme Court explained that the right-to-control test examines the overall employment relationship rather than a task-by-task review.
Course and scope is an objective question: Was the employee performing tasks generally assigned to him in furtherance of the employer's business? That framing matters when a carrier argues that its driver was off duty, running a personal errand, or driving on his own time.
Texas gives commercial vehicle defendants a procedural tool that ordinary motorists never receive. Under Chapter 72 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a defendant in a commercial motor vehicle collision case may move to bifurcate the trial.
The motion is due by the later of two dates: 120 days after that defendant files an original answer, or 30 days after a claiming party adds a new claim against that defendant. When the court grants the motion, the first phase decides liability and compensatory damages, and the second phase decides exemplary damages.
Section 72.053 also limits what the jury hears in the first phase. Evidence that a defendant failed to comply with a regulation or standard is admissible there under narrow conditions. The regulation must be specific and must govern that defendant, and the failure must tend to prove proximate cause of the injury or death.
Section 72.054 gives the carrier a second option. The employer may stipulate, within the same deadline, that the driver was its employee acting within the scope of employment at the time of the collision. Its liability for the driver's ordinary negligence then turns on respondeat superior.
That stipulation narrows what the jury weighs about the company itself, though the statute preserves certain claims through its own exceptions, including negligent maintenance and exemplary damages. Building the regulatory record before the deadline passes keeps those facts in front of a jury.
Texas recognizes two categories of compensatory damages, and commercial vehicle cases frequently involve substantial amounts of both.
Economic damages cover documented financial losses:
Non-economic damages cover harm that no invoice measures:
Shared fault reduces a recovery without automatically ending it. Under Section 33.001 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, an injured person may recover as long as their percentage of responsibility does not exceed 50 percent, with the award reduced by that percentage.
Two years. Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code requires a personal injury suit to be brought within two years after the day the cause of action accrues.
Waiting that long is rarely wise in a trucking case. Inspection reports can be discarded after 3 months, and physical evidence such as tire fragments, load documentation, and vehicle damage can change or disappear well before the filing deadline arrives.
Responsibility often extends past the person behind the wheel. Depending on the facts, the motor carrier, vehicle owner, maintenance contractor, cargo loader, freight broker, or parts manufacturer may share liability. Our investigation identifies each party whose conduct contributed to the collision.
Faster than most people expect. Federal rules require a carrier to keep driver vehicle inspection reports for only 3 months. Sending a preservation letter early helps keep those reports, along with electronic logging data and dispatch communications, from being destroyed on schedule.
Often, yes. Texas motor carrier safety rules adopted under Transportation Code Section 644.051 must align with the corresponding federal regulations, so loading, inspection, and driver fitness duties apply to intrastate carriers as well.
That admission is a strategic decision under Section 72.054. Once a carrier stipulates that its driver was an employee acting within the scope of employment, liability for ordinary negligence runs through respondeat superior. Developing the regulatory and maintenance record early keeps the company's own conduct in play where the statute allows it.
Possibly. Texas permits recovery as long as your share of responsibility does not exceed 50 percent, with your award reduced by that percentage. Carriers and their insurers routinely assign fault to the other driver, and that assignment is a position to be tested, not a conclusion to accept.
We handle truck accident cases on a contingency fee basis, so you pay attorney fees only if we recover under the terms of the signed agreement. Your case evaluation costs nothing, and we explain the fee terms in writing before you decide anything.
Commercial vehicle claims reward early action. Records carry expiration dates, carriers have counsel reviewing the file within days, and the Chapter 72 clock runs from the answer forward.
The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers represent injured people and their families across Texas in truck and commercial vehicle cases, in English and Spanish. Board-certified in personal injury trial law, attorney David Sanchez has handled more than 100 jury trials.
Call (972) 529-3476 to speak with a Texas truck accident lawyer about what happened to you. We work on a contingency fee basis, and your case evaluation is free.
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