Who Is Actually Liable in a Truck Accident | A Legal Review
Truck crashes lead to thousands of fatalities annually, yet most victims never realize they can sue more than just the driver.
Trucks bear fault in 55% of collisions with passenger vehicles. But liability spreads across multiple parties: trucking companies, maintenance shops, cargo loaders, and manufacturers. Each contributed to the crash. Each owes compensation.
Driver vs Trucking Company Liability in Commercial Vehicle Accidents
The driver ran the red light. Simple.
Except it’s not. That driver was on hour 14 of his shift, violating federal law that caps driving at 11 hours. His employer knew. The electronic logs prove it. Now the company shares liability through vicarious liability doctrine, which makes employers responsible for employee actions during work duties, even if the company wasn’t directly negligent, though usually they are, because 45% of roadside inspections find hours-of-service violations, and somebody at headquarters sees those violation reports pile up month after month but keeps scheduling impossible routes anyway.
Employee or contractor? Critical distinction. Employees trigger automatic employer liability. Contractors might not. California courts look at control: Who sets the schedule? Who owns the truck? Who mandates the routes? More control equals more liability. 91.2% of truck drivers in fatal crashes received zero moving violations. Think about that. The crashes happen anyway. Because the problems started before the driver got behind the wheel.
Third-Party Defendants: Maintenance Companies, Cargo Loaders, and Manufacturers
23% of truck accidents involve multiple defendants, including:
Maintenance Providers
From worn brake pads to bald tires, wear and tear on trucks is very different from that of normal cars. Maintenance providers know federal law requires keeping maintenance records for 18 months because when crashes happen, investigators come looking.
Cargo Loaders
Improperly secured loads shift at highway speeds, sending 80,000-pound trucks careening across lanes like pinballs. While federal regulations specify exact tie-down requirements based on cargo weight and type, loaders routinely ignore them because proper loading takes time, and time costs money. Shifted cargo caused your crash? The loading company pays.
Manufacturers
Faulty brake systems. Tire blowouts. Steering failures. Manufacturers know about problems through warranty claims and incident reports, but calculate that paying settlements costs less than recalls.
Brokers and Shippers
“Deliver by morning or lose the contract.” Drivers speed, skip rest breaks, and falsify logs. When crashes result from this pressure, California courts increasingly hold these companies liable for creating dangerous conditions.
Black Box Data and Electronic Evidence Before It Disappears
72 hours. Maybe less.
Black box data overwrites within 30 days. Surveillance footage? Gone in 24-48 hours at most businesses. Skid marks wash away with the next rain.
Electronic Logging Devices store six months of driver data. Speed. Location. Rest breaks. Hours driven. But trucking companies “lose” this data surprisingly often when it shows violations. One preservation letter stops the deletion. Send it immediately.
The Event Data Recorder captures five seconds before impact. Brake application, steering wheel position, speed changes, and throttle position. Five seconds that prove everything. Or nothing, if you wait too long and it gets overwritten because trucks keep rolling, and that recorder keeps recording.
Dashcam footage from the truck shows your lane position, weather conditions, and traffic patterns. Unless they delete it first. We’ve seen companies claim their cameras “malfunctioned” right before the crash. Judges don’t buy it, but you need to file for preservation before they try.
Physical evidence matters too. Tire marks measure speed. Debris patterns show impact angles. Fluid leaks indicate mechanical failures. Our investigators use drones for aerial documentation that ground photos miss. But only if we get there fast.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations That Strengthen Your Case
If a truck driver breaks a federal safety rule and causes a crash, they are typically deemed at fault.
Under federal law, drivers can’t exceed 11 hours of driving without a 10-hour break. Logs prove violations. So do receipts, GPS data, and delivery timestamps.
Weight limits exist for reasons. Overweight trucks can’t stop. Can’t turn. Destroy roads. Cause bridges to collapse. Weigh station records document violations. So do shipping manifests when they don’t match actual cargo weight.
Maintenance requirements aren’t suggestions. Daily vehicle inspections. Documented repairs. Certified mechanics. When companies skip these steps and people die, juries get angry. Angry juries award big verdicts.
Drug and alcohol testing requirements catch impaired drivers. But companies sometimes “forget” to test after crashes. Or lose the results. Or use uncertified labs. Each violation adds zeros to settlement values.
California Comparative Negligence: Getting Paid Even When Partially At Fault
California follows pure comparative negligence, meaning if you’re 40% at fault, you can still get 60% of damages.
Most states cut you off at 50% or 51% fault. Not California. Even at 99% fault, you recover 1% of damages. Sounds small until you realize that 1% of $10 million is $100,000.
Yet Insurance adjusters may claim you’re 80% at fault, hoping you’ll give up. Don’t. We’ve seen cases where initial police reports blamed our client, but the investigation revealed the truck driver was texting, speeding, and hadn’t slept in 20 hours. Our client went from 70% fault to 15%. That’s a difference of $850,000 in recovery.
How fault gets assigned matters. Police reports aren’t final—they’re just one cop’s opinion based on a quick scene assessment. Real investigation takes weeks. Accident reconstruction. Witness interviews. Video analysis. Data from both vehicles.
Common blame-shifting tactics:
- “You changed lanes suddenly” (dashcam proves otherwise)
- “You were speeding” (black box shows you weren’t)
- “You weren’t paying attention” (phone records prove no usage)
- “You could have avoided it” (physics says otherwise at those speeds)
Fight every percentage point. Each one costs thousands.
Truck Accident Settlement Amounts Based on Injury Severity
Cases involving broken bones, concussions, and soft tissue damage often settle relatively quickly because future costs are predictable.
Serious injuries can jump to $500,000+. Spinal damage requiring surgery. Traumatic brain injuries with permanent effects. Loss of limb function. These need life care planners to calculate future medical costs, which run into millions over a lifetime.
Catastrophic cases, such as those involving paralysis, severe brain damage, amputations, and wrongful death, can hit $10+ million. One client, a 34-year-old construction worker, was paralyzed from the chest down. The initial offer was $750,000. Yet the final settlement was $8.2 million. Why the jump? We proved lifetime care costs exceeded $6 million. Lost wages added $3 million more. Pain and suffering pushed the total value over $10 million.
Commercial trucks carry $750,000 to $5 million in coverage. Hazmat trucks carry more. But single policies rarely cover catastrophic injuries. We stack coverage: trucking company policy, trailer owner policy, cargo coverage, excess liability, and employer’s umbrella policy. Five policies later, we found $12 million in coverage for a client everyone said would max out at $1 million.
Wrongful death cases vary widely, depending on the age and income of the deceased. But that’s how insurance companies calculate. We fight for non-economic damages: loss of companionship, emotional trauma to survivors, and punitive damages when conduct was egregious.
Evidence Collection Timeline After a Commercial Truck Crash
- First 24 hours: Call 911, get medical treatment, and take photos of your injuries, the scene, the vehicles, and the road conditions. Get witness contact information, including names, phone numbers, emails, and addresses, before they disappear.
- Hours 24-72: Legal preservation begins. Your attorney sends preservation letters to all parties and files freedom of information requests. The trucking company already has lawyers working. You need the same urgency.
- Week one: This is where medical documentation starts. Document every symptom, treatment, and conversation with doctors. Insurance companies love claiming injuries aren’t related to the crash, but detailed medical records kill that defense.
- Week 2-4: The investigation deepens. Attorneys look at the driver’s history, the company’s safety record, previous crashes, violations, maintenance logs, driver logs, and training records. Each document builds the pattern of negligence.
- Month 2-3: Accident reconstructionists may assist with an investigation, while medical experts project future care needs. Vocational experts calculate lost earning capacity, and economic experts total all losses.
- Month 3-6: Real negotiation begins now—not the lowball offers from week two. Serious money discussions based on documented losses and clear liability. Most cases settle here if the insurance company accepts reality.
- Beyond six months: Litigation may follow if a settlement cannot be reached. Discovery reveals hidden documents. Depositions put everyone under oath. Trial dates pressure real settlements. Some companies only pay fair value when facing a jury.
The Bottom Line on Truck Accident Liability
Your case value depends on swift action, preserved evidence, expert documentation, and aggressive representation that knows trucking law, understands multi-party liability, and won’t accept lowball settlements.
At DK Law, we investigate truck crashes across California. We know which companies falsify logs, how insurers play games, and which defenses fall apart under scrutiny.
The difference between calling today versus next week could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost evidence and diminished claim value. Speak to a truck accident lawyer today during a free consultation.
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