Commercial Truck Crashes in Texas and the Rules That Govern Claims

By Hank FasthoffSeptember 14, 2026

A commercial truck crash can involve claims against the driver, the motor carrier, and other businesses responsible for the vehicle or shipment. Driver schedules, maintenance records, cargo documents, and electronic data help establish what happened and who was responsible.

Federal safety requirements and Texas trial rules affect how those claims are investigated and presented. Identifying the rules that apply to the particular driver, vehicle, and trip is part of that investigation.

The Safety Rules That Apply

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations govern covered commercial trucking operations in interstate commerce. Texas also adopts federal requirements for covered intrastate operations, with state exceptions and different rules for some activities. The distinction affects driving limits, recordkeeping, and other duties. 37 Texas Administrative Code § 4.12.

For drivers transporting property under the federal hours of service rule, the standard limits are 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty and no driving after the 14th consecutive hour following the start of duty. Drivers must interrupt driving for at least 30 consecutive minutes after eight cumulative driving hours without a qualifying interruption. That interruption may include time on duty without driving.

Additional limits prohibit driving after 60 hours on duty in seven consecutive days or 70 hours in eight consecutive days, depending on the carrier’s operating schedule. Specific exceptions govern activities such as qualifying short haul operations. 49 C.F.R. § 395.3.

Texas intrastate driving limits differ. Under the state’s standard rule, drivers may drive 12 hours after eight consecutive hours off duty and must stop driving after 15 hours on duty. Texas also prohibits driving after 70 hours of work or driving in seven consecutive days, subject to applicable exceptions and restart provisions. Applying the federal 11 and 14 hour limits to every truck operating in Texas would misstate the law. 37 Texas Administrative Code § 4.12.

Carriers have compliance duties as well. They must require drivers to observe applicable duties under the safety regulations, maintain required driver qualification records, and systematically inspect, repair, and maintain vehicles under their control. A civil claim also requires evidence connecting the defendant’s conduct to the injury. 49 C.F.R. § 390.11, § 391.51, and § 396.3.

Testing After a Crash

For drivers and employers subject to the federal testing rules, a fatal crash triggers alcohol and controlled substance testing of surviving drivers who performed safety sensitive functions. Certain injury and towing crashes also require testing when the driver receives a citation for a moving traffic violation arising from the crash. The citation must arrive within eight hours for alcohol testing or 32 hours for controlled substance testing. The injury must require immediate medical treatment away from the scene, or the vehicle damage must disable a vehicle and require its removal by towing. 49 C.F.R. § 382.303.

Required testing must occur as soon as practicable. If an alcohol test hasn’t occurred within two hours, the employer must document the delay. At eight hours, the employer must stop attempts and document the failure to test. For controlled substances, the cutoff is 32 hours, with documentation required if testing hasn’t occurred. Necessary emergency medical care takes priority under the rule.

Records and Preservation

Federal regulations require carriers to retain different records for different periods. These are minimum retention requirements for covered records, and several periods are shorter than the deadline for filing a lawsuit.

Electronic evidence requires separate attention. Depending on the equipment and settings, a truck’s engine control module, which is an onboard computer, may contain information about vehicle operation near the crash. Cameras, dispatch systems, and phones may contain additional records. Storage limits, continued use, repairs, and deletion settings affect what remains available, so the investigation should identify the particular systems and their custodians.

Texas preservation duties can arise before anyone sends a demand. In Brookshire Brothers, Ltd. v. Aldridge, the Supreme Court of Texas explained that a party must preserve material and relevant evidence in its possession or control when it knows or reasonably should know there is a substantial chance of a claim. A preservation demand helps document notice and identify relevant evidence. A routine retention schedule doesn’t excuse destruction after that duty arises.

The trial judge determines whether a party breached its preservation duty and what remedy is appropriate. An instruction allowing the jury to draw an adverse inference requires intentional concealment, subject to a narrow exception for negligent loss that irreparably deprives a party of a meaningful opportunity to present a claim or defense. Remedies must fit the misconduct and prejudice, and evidence concerning spoliation alone ordinarily stays outside the jury’s consideration. Receipt of a preservation letter doesn’t establish an automatic entitlement to sanctions. Brookshire Brothers.

Insurance and the Businesses Behind the Shipment

Federal law requires at least $750,000 in financial responsibility for carriers transporting nonhazardous property for compensation in interstate or foreign commerce using vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more. Specified hazardous cargo operations require $1 million or $5 million, depending on the cargo, quantity, vehicle, and transportation involved. The applicable category must be identified before stating a carrier’s required minimum. 49 C.F.R. § 387.9.

Actual coverage depends on the policies and endorsements that apply to the crash. A carrier, tractor owner, trailer owner, maintenance contractor, shipper, or freight broker may have a relevant role. Contracts, leases, shipping documents, and operational records help establish each business’s conduct and responsibilities. Each proposed defendant requires a supported legal basis for liability, and each policy requires a coverage analysis.

Freight broker claims also require attention to federal preemption, which concerns whether federal law displaces a state claim. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, decided May 14, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal motor vehicle safety exception preserved the claim that a broker negligently hired a motor carrier. The Court resolved the preemption question; liability depended on the underlying claim and evidence.

How Texas Chapter 72 Affects the Trial

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 72 contains special procedures for covered commercial vehicle collision claims. On a qualifying defendant’s timely motion, the court must divide the trial into two phases. The first concerns liability and compensatory damages, which compensate the claimant. The second concerns exemplary damages, which punish qualifying misconduct. Section 72.052.

The motion deadline is the later of 120 days after the moving defendant files its original answer or 30 days after a claimant files a pleading adding a claim against that defendant. This procedure affects the order of trial and the evidence presented during each phase. The statute’s command to provide a divided trial also appears in the Legislature’s enacted House Bill 19.

Section 72.053 governs evidence of regulatory violations in the first phase. The evidence must tend to show that the violation was a proximate cause of the injury or death, and the regulation must be specific and applicable to the defendant, employee, property, or equipment at issue. Other admissibility requirements also apply. A driver’s expired medical qualification, for example, requires analysis of its connection to the injury before the court admits it under this provision. Section 72.053.

An employer’s timely admission that the driver was its employee acting within the scope of employment changes the treatment of certain claims. Section 72.054 bases liability for the driver’s ordinary negligence on respondeat superior, the doctrine imposing employer responsibility for qualifying employee conduct, subject to the statute’s exception. In a divided trial, it restricts first phase evidence concerning employer negligence claims that depend on finding the driver negligent. Section 72.054.

For regulated employers, the statute permits specified evidence concerning licensing, disqualification, medical certification, driving restrictions, phone use, and other listed subjects. In the first phase, evidence admitted under that exception is limited to establishing ordinary negligent entrustment, and the listed evidence is exclusive for that claim. Claims such as negligent maintenance that don’t depend on employee negligence may proceed in the first phase. Exemplary damages claims proceed in the second phase.

Some exceptions depend on when the crash occurred after hiring. The provision concerning drug testing before employment requires both controlled substance impairment at the crash and a collision within 180 days after employment began. The background investigation provision applies when the collision occurred on or before the first employment anniversary. Those periods govern the availability of specified evidence under Chapter 72; testing and investigation deadlines come from the underlying regulations. Section 72.054(c), as enacted in House Bill 19.

Fault, Filing Deadlines, and Damages

Texas bars recovery when a claimant’s responsibility exceeds 50%. At 50% or below, the claimant’s percentage of responsibility reduces recoverable damages. Evidence concerning speed, visibility, braking, lane position, and the actions of other drivers can affect that allocation. Sections 33.001 and 33.012.

Section 16.003 sets a two year limitations period for personal injury claims, measured from accrual of the claim. For injuries sustained in a truck crash, accrual ordinarily occurs on the crash date. Wrongful death claims accrue at death under that statute. Separate tolling provisions affect calculation of the deadline, including the provision for a person who is under 18 when the claim accrues. Sections 16.003 and 16.001.

Texas wrongful death claims benefit the deceased person’s surviving spouse, children, and parents. If no surviving spouse, child, or parent files a wrongful death lawsuit within three calendar months after the death, the deceased person’s executor or administrator must file and pursue the lawsuit. That duty doesn’t apply if all surviving family members entitled to bring the claim ask the executor or administrator not to proceed. A survival claim preserves the deceased person’s personal injury claim for the benefit of the estate and involves different damages. Sections 71.004 and 71.021.

Exemplary damages based on gross negligence require clear and convincing evidence under Chapter 41. A jury must be unanimous on both liability for exemplary damages and their amount. Section 41.008 caps exemplary damages at the greater of $200,000 or twice economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000. The statute contains exceptions for specified conduct, including intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter. Sections 41.003 and 41.008.

Investigating a Truck Crash Claim

An early investigation should identify the driver, carrier, vehicle owners, and other businesses whose conduct may have contributed to the crash. Preservation requests should identify relevant vehicles, electronic systems, records, and the people or businesses controlling them. Inspection arrangements should account for repairs, salvage, and continued vehicle use, while medical records and employment information document the claimed losses.

A truck crash claim requires evidence of responsibility, causation, and damages, together with an assessment of available coverage. The investigation should connect each alleged failure to the collision and injury and account for Chapter 72’s rules governing how the evidence can be presented.