Truck accidents are one of the most serious and complicated kinds of motor vehicle accidents. They are accidents that can lead to life-altering injuries, huge property damage, and real financial losses, all at once.
As of July 25, 2025, reports show that 1,600 fatal truck crashes have occurred, continuing a downward trend. This reflects the broader overall highway safety improvements where general traffic deaths fell by over 8% during the first half of the year.
Learning what the most common causes of truck accidents are and their legal implications can help in recovering compensation for your medical bills, lost income, and other harm you’ve experienced.
Here are the things you need to understand to make sure negligent parties get held accountable and that the evidence, like records and footage, is preserved properly.
The Leading Causes of Serious Truck Crashes
Driver-related issues are usually considered to be one of the major causes of truck accidents by FMCSA, which can be due to fatigue, distraction while driving, and speeding. All these issues result in certain evidence that helps to establish the fault of the driver or the trucking firm.
Truck cases also involve strict federal and state regulations. It can determine liability when violations occur. Hours-of-service rule violations, improper maintenance, or overloaded cargo may all point to negligence. In that sense, Wisconsin injured truck driver lawyer Craig Steger concludes that building a strong case requires a detailed investigation and a clear connection between the negligence and injuries suffered.
The Federal Hours of Service (HOS) rules restrict the number of hours of driving that most commercial drivers should do to 11 within a 14-hour period of working and must include a 30-minute break after eight hours of driving. Still, violations occur, and ELD data can provide important evidence to prove fatigue and HOS violations after an accident has occurred.
Mechanical issues including brake failure, blown tires, and steering defects are a common cause of truck accidents. Since federal law requires regular inspections and maintenance, the lack of or delayed maintenance records is significant evidence of negligence.
Poor loading and securing of cargo can result in trucks rolling over, jackknifing, or spilling their loads. The federal laws on cargo securement will apply, and liability can extend from the driver and the trucking company to the cargo loader/shipper.
Why FMCSA Violations Are So Consequential in Truck Accident Claims
Cases involving truck accidents are more complicated than other typical car accidents, as they are regulated by the FMCSA regulations concerning the qualification of drivers, hours of services, maintenance of vehicles, cargo securement, and drug and alcohol testing.
The breach of these regulations can be considered negligence per se, which means that the breach of regulations is negligence in itself.
Hours of services violations, falsified log books, medical disqualification, and FMCSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) are examples of evidence that would show the safety violations in the past of a trucking company.
Who Can Be Held Liable, It Is Rarely Just the Driver
Generally, the truck driver is considered the primary defendant in every case involving a third-party injured person in a truck collision. However, it becomes evident that the coverage provided by the insurance policy of the truck driver and personal wealth is not enough to cover the serious consequences of the accident. Larger defendants are the companies behind the driver.
It is necessary to remember that under respondeat superior liability, an employer is responsible for the actions of its employees if they are negligent and perform the duties in the course of employment, irrespective of the employer's own negligence.
Moreover, there may be independent negligence of the carrier, like negligent hiring, monitoring of hours-of-service violations, and lack of proper maintenance. Interstate carriers of general freight shall have $750,000 of liability insurance coverage, according to 49 C.F.R. § 387.9, and carriers of specific hazardous materials should have liability coverage of up to $5,000,000.
Where the crash is caused by failure of brakes following a prior third-party inspection or the loading of cargo by the independent shipper, every entity will be independently liable.
When the Truck Driver Is the One Who Was Hurt
All of the above applies to people who sustain injuries in a truck accident. There will be some difference, however, if the injured individual happens to be the truck driver.
In case the truck driver is considered an employee, he/she will generally file a claim for workers' compensation; if independent contractors, they may have other legal recourse. In most states, the provision of workers' compensation prevents the lawsuit against the employer but not against any other party responsible for the accident.
A single truck accident may give rise to various types of legal actions. Injured drivers are known to initiate personal injury actions against either the driver of the truck or the company owning it, while an injured truck driver can initiate two kinds of claims.
Evidence That Disappears Without Early Action
Truck accident evidence has a unique schedule of retention, unlike what most people think. ELD data, dashcam footage, onboard diagnostics, GPS tracking, and fleet management software records tend to be overwritten or deleted regularly unless a preservation order is placed soon after an accident.
Important pieces of evidence that need to be saved after a truck accident are electronic logbook information, dash cam footage, black box recordings that demonstrate the truck’s speed and brakes, truck inspections, and drug and alcohol tests of the driver following the crash.
A formal evidence preservation letter, sometimes called a spoliation letter, sent to the carrier, its insurer, and any known contractors immediately after the crash creates a legal duty to preserve these records. Failure to preserve evidence after receiving such notice can result in sanctions and adverse inference instructions at trial.
The FMCSA's post-accident regulations require drug and alcohol testing within specific timeframes after a qualifying crash, and those results must be retained for a minimum of five years.
What the Legal Process Looks Like After a Truck Accident
The legal claim for a truck accident is initiated in state court according to state personal injury laws; however, the federal regulation structure influences every important element of evidence.
The FMCSA safety statistics, the compliance record of the carrier, the driving qualification file of the driver, the ELD log, and the post-crash drug screen report all provide pieces of the puzzle regarding the facts of the accident and the parties liable for it.
According to the statistics provided by the FMCSA, there was a 49% increase in large-truck fatal crashes in the last decade. The regulation system established by the industry builds up an extensive paper trail even before the accident occurs, whether the plaintiff of a claim is the third party involved in the crash or the truck driver.
In any case of injuries in a truck crash, what is important is the existence of the paper trail, its accessibility, and the possibility of preserving it before the retention schedule of the carrier deletes it.
