Most people assume that after any crash, the proper thing to do is to exchange information and file an insurance claim. This may work fine for most crashes involving passenger cars, where the damage is generally limited to the vehicles, but conventional wisdom is a poor fit when a commercial truck causes a crash that results in serious injury or death. What makes commercial truck accidents work differently than a car accident?
Answer: Texas truck accidents differ from car accidents in the scale of their typical damages, what laws regulate them, and what parties might be considered liable in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.
Let's look more closely at each of those differences.
How Much More Damage Can a Truck Accident Cause?
According to survey data from 2022, the median weight of most passenger vehicles (cars, SUVs, light pickups) is around 4,000-5,000 pounds (2-2.5 tons). When those vehicles crash the damage can certainly be serious, but it often pales in comparison to the devastation caused by a major truck accident.
A semi-truck tractor on its own weighs between 10,000 and 25,000 pounds (5-12.5 tons). With an empty trailer attached its gross weight goes up to roughly 35,000 pounds (17.5 tons), and when the trailer is full it and the tractor combined can weigh up to 80,000 pounds (40 tons). That's not just trivia for its own sake, though: If a 4,000-pound vehicle can cause serious damage during a collision, consider what one 20 times its weight is likely to dish out in the same circumstances.
Commercial truck accidents, particularly those with smaller vehicles, often have catastrophic effects. As a consequence of that greater destruction, accidents involving commercial vehicles are often more complex to investigate and prosecute than a typical car crash.
What Does the Law Say about Truck Accidents?
Recognizing the danger that a truck accident can create, lawmakers and regulators at all levels of government instituted special rules for commercial trucks that don't apply to other vehicles. Here are a few sources of truck-specific laws that might apply after an accident:
- Federal: The laws of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act govern most aspects of commercial carriers, from a truck driver's permitted hours of service to the minimum insurance coverage they must carry to the truck's maximum weight. Passenger vehicles and the conduct of their drivers are typically governed by the laws of their home states and towns, but the FMCSA specifically regulates interstate commercial transportation at a national level.
- State: Most of the regulations outlined by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in the Texas Transportation Code apply to all traffic, but some of them specifically relate to commercial vehicles. Among those are rules about how trucks are registered, when and where they must be inspected, and how their drivers must be licensed.
- Municipal: Most cities in Texas have some local ordinances that apply specifically to large trucks like 18-wheelers. Dallas, for example, has laws requiring tractor-trailers not to use the inside lanes of some highways for anything but passing other vehicles. It and many other cities also prohibit vehicles over a certain weight from traveling and parking on certain local roads and bridges.
The point here is that commercial truck drivers have specific and detailed guidelines about what they can and cannot do. Finding someone knowledgeable about all those regulations and how violating them can contribute to a crash is a tall order, and most people will need help understanding them. Unlike a crash with another passenger car, where it's generally easy to identify what rule of the road the offending driver broke, it's not always clear to the average motorist that a commercial truck driver broke a law prior to causing a collision.
Who is Liable in a Truck Accident Lawsuit?
Liability for a car wreck is generally divided between the drivers involved, but an 18-wheeler accident may involve a wider range of partly or even wholly responsible parties. For example, if a negligent truck driver causes a crash while on the job, his employer is usually also liable for the damage done. Other at-fault parties might include the truck's mechanics (either those directly employed by the company or third-party technicians), its manufacturer, third-party dispatch companies, or vendors who loaded the truck's trailer incorrectly.
The takeaway is that with so many potentially negligent parties, unlike a car accident investigation, a truck accident investigation can't conclude at the crash scene if the whole story is to be learned.
What Should I Do if I'm Involved in a Truck Accident?
When speaking with prospective clients, one point we always try to make is that commercial truck accidents aren't just bigger car accidents. It stands to reason that it takes a different strategy to resolve these cases than how one would deal with the aftermath of a regular car crash. Further, each of these differences raises the complexity of the case.
That is why injured victims and their families are often best served by getting an experienced truck accident lawyer in their corner. The Texas attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have decades of combined experience helping people hurt in 18-wheeler collisions, and they are always available to discuss your accident. If you lost a loved one or were injured in a commercial truck accident, call any time for a free and confidential consultation.
