Who Is Liable in a Texas Truck Accident?

Key Takeaways

• The truck driver may be responsible for a crash, but the investigation should not stop with the person behind the wheel.
• A motor carrier may be responsible for the negligence of its driver and, depending on the facts, for its own conduct involving maintenance, hiring, supervision, or other safety issues.
• Federal trucking regulations, electronic logging data, maintenance records, dispatch records, and other evidence can help establish how and why a collision occurred.
• A cargo company, maintenance contractor, equipment owner, or parts manufacturer may also bear responsibility when its conduct contributed to the crash.
• Under Texas proportionate-responsibility law, an injured person’s recovery may be reduced by his or her percentage of responsibility and is barred if that percentage is greater than 50%.

After a serious collision with an 18-wheeler, one of the first questions is usually: Who is responsible? Sometimes the answer is straightforward. A truck driver runs a red light, changes lanes without looking, or follows traffic too closely and causes a collision. Other truck accident cases are considerably more complicated.

The driver may have been fatigued because of an unreasonable delivery schedule. The tractor or trailer may have had a maintenance problem. Cargo may have been improperly loaded or secured.

Important safety information may be contained in the trucking company’s electronic records rather than in the police report. That is why investigating a serious commercial-truck collision requires looking beyond the driver and examining the entire trucking operation.

At Reed & Terry Law Firm, we investigate the people and companies whose conduct may have contributed to truck accidents in Sugar Land, Fort Bend County, and throughout the Houston area.

Why Truck Accident Liability Is More Complicated Than a Car Crash

A passenger-car accident frequently involves two drivers and two insurance companies.

A commercial truck accident can involve considerably more.

The tractor may be owned by one company and the trailer by another. The driver may work for a motor carrier or operate under a separate contractual arrangement. Another company may have loaded the trailer.

Maintenance may have been performed by an outside contractor. The shipment itself may involve additional commercial entities.

The truck may also contain electronic and business records that simply do not exist in an ordinary automobile accident.

Determining liability therefore requires answering two separate questions: What caused the crash, and who was legally responsible for the conduct that caused it?

Those questions should be answered with evidence, not assumptions.

The Truck Driver

A commercial driver can be responsible when negligent driving causes or contributes to a collision.

• Speeding or driving too fast for conditions;
• Following another vehicle too closely;
• An unsafe lane change;
• Failure to yield;
• Distracted driving;
• Driving while fatigued;
• Failing to maintain a proper lookout; or
• Operating the truck in violation of an applicable safety regulation.

But proving driver negligence often requires more than simply reading the crash report. Electronic records, photographs, witnesses, video, vehicle data, and the driver’s activities before the collision can provide a much more complete picture of what occurred.

The Trucking Company or Motor Carrier

The driver’s employer or motor carrier is often one of the most important parties to investigate. When a driver is an employee acting within the course and scope of employment, the employer may be legally responsible for the driver’s negligence under the doctrine of respondeat superior.

There may also be circumstances in which a trucking company’s own conduct becomes important, including issues involving maintenance, driver qualification, entrustment, supervision, training, or compliance with applicable safety requirements.

Texas has specific statutes governing how certain claims against commercial motor carriers and their employers are presented in court. For that reason, the potential liability of the carrier should be evaluated under the particular facts of the collision rather than assuming that every truck accident supports the same claims.

One issue we examine is whether the company itself made decisions that unnecessarily increased the danger on the road.

For example, did the carrier know about a mechanical problem and fail to correct it? Did it place a driver in a vehicle the driver was not qualified to operate? Did company dispatch records create a timeline that could not reasonably be completed while complying with applicable driving-hour restrictions?

Those are factual questions that should be answered from the company’s records.

Federal Hours-of-Service Rules and Driver Fatigue

Fatigue is an important issue in some commercial-truck crashes. Federal hours-of-service regulations generally restrict the number of hours a property-carrying commercial driver may drive and establish required off-duty periods and driving windows, subject to exceptions contained in the regulations.

For many property-carrying drivers, the rules generally include:

• At least 10 consecutive hours off duty before beginning another driving period;
• An 11-hour driving limit;
• A 14-hour on-duty driving window; and
• A required interruption after specified periods of driving, subject to regulatory exceptions.

A violation does not automatically answer every liability question in a Texas lawsuit. The regulation must apply to the driver or carrier, and the violation must be relevant to what caused the collision.

But when fatigue is suspected, hours-of-service information can become important evidence.

Electronic Logging Devices Can Tell Part of the Story

Many commercial drivers who are required to maintain records of duty status use an electronic logging device, or ELD.

An ELD can provide information concerning driving time, duty status, vehicle movement, mileage, engine hours, locations at specified events, and other information used to determine compliance with federal hours-of-service requirements.

But an ELD should not be confused with every other electronic system on a commercial truck. Depending on the equipment involved, additional information may be available from:

• Engine or electronic control modules;
• Fleet-management and telematics systems;
• GPS and dispatch systems;
• Forward-facing or driver-facing cameras;
• Collision-avoidance systems; and
• Other onboard electronic systems.

These different sources may help reconstruct the truck’s movement and the events surrounding a collision.

Evidence We Want Preserved After a Serious Truck Accident

One reason early investigation matters in a trucking case is that the most valuable evidence is often controlled by the trucking company or another commercial entity.

Depending on the circumstances, important evidence may include:

• Electronic logging-device records;
• Records of duty status and supporting documents;
• Dispatch and trip records;
• GPS and telematics information;
• Engine-control or vehicle-system data;
• Dash-camera or other video;
• The driver’s qualification file;
• Driving history and licensing information;
• Training records;
• Inspection and maintenance records;
• Repair history;
• Driver vehicle inspection reports;
• Communications between the driver and dispatcher;
• Bills of lading and shipping documents;
• Cargo-loading and securement information;
• Photographs of the tractor, trailer, cargo, and collision scene; and
• Relevant cell-phone or electronic-device evidence when legally obtainable.

The precise evidence depends on the case. A lawyer handling a significant truck collision should identify potentially important evidence and take appropriate steps to request that it be preserved before information is lost through ordinary retention practices, overwritten electronically, repaired, or otherwise becomes unavailable.

Maintenance Companies and Equipment Owners

Mechanical problems can also cause or contribute to truck accidents. Brakes, tires, steering components, lights, coupling equipment, and other systems must be properly inspected and maintained.

When a mechanical failure is suspected, the investigation should determine who owned the equipment, who was responsible for inspecting it, who performed maintenance or repairs, and whether a known problem had previously been reported.

A motor carrier may be responsible for its own maintenance failures. An outside maintenance or repair company may also potentially bear responsibility if negligent work contributed to the crash.

The evidence determines the claim.

Cargo Loading and Securement

A tractor-trailer can become extremely difficult to control when cargo shifts unexpectedly.

Federal regulations contain requirements governing the securement of different types of cargo.

Depending on the shipment, responsibility for loading or securing the freight may involve the carrier, driver, shipper, loading company, or another entity.

An improperly balanced or unsecured load can contribute to:

• Rollovers;
• Jackknife crashes;
• Loss of steering control;
• Trailer instability; or
• Cargo leaving the trailer and striking other vehicles.

When cargo movement may have contributed to a wreck, bills of lading, loading records, photographs, weight information, securement equipment, and the identity of the people who actually loaded and inspected the trailer can become important.

Defective Truck Parts and Product Liability

Not every truck crash is caused by driver error. A defective component can fail even when a driver is operating the vehicle properly.

Potential examples include defective tires, braking components, steering equipment, coupling systems, or other vehicle parts.

If a component failure appears to have caused or contributed to a serious collision, the vehicle and failed component may need to be inspected before they are repaired, discarded, or altered.

Depending on the evidence, a manufacturer, distributor, repair company, or another entity in the chain may become part of the investigation.

How Texas Law Handles Shared Fault

Texas follows a system known as proportionate responsibility.

Under Chapter 33 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the factfinder may assign percentages of responsibility among the claimant and other parties whose conduct is properly submitted.

An injured person who is partly responsible for a collision is not necessarily prevented from recovering damages.

For example, if a jury determines that a person’s damages are $1 million but finds that person 20% responsible for the accident, the recoverable damages would generally be reduced by that 20% share of responsibility.

Texas draws an important line, however. If the injured person’s percentage of responsibility is greater than 50%, the person cannot recover damages under Chapter 33. That makes fault allocation extremely important in a serious commercial-vehicle case.

It is also one reason an investigation should begin with the evidence rather than accepting an insurance company’s version of how the collision occurred.

A Federal Safety Violation Is Important – But It Does Not Automatically Prove the Case

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations can provide important evidence in commercial-trucking litigation. The regulations address subjects such as driver qualification, hours of service, inspection, maintenance, and vehicle operation. But it is too simplistic to say that every regulatory violation automatically establishes liability.

Texas law specifically addresses the use of regulatory violations in commercial-motor-vehicle cases. Among other requirements, the regulation must be applicable, and the evidence must tend to show that the violation was a proximate cause of the injury. That distinction matters.

The real question is not simply: Was a rule violated? It is: Was an applicable safety rule violated, and did that violation contribute to causing this crash?

That is the connection an effective investigation should establish.

Who Can Be Liable in a Texas Truck Accident?

Depending on the evidence, potentially responsible parties can include:

• The truck driver;
• The driver’s employer or motor carrier;
• The owner or lessee of the tractor or trailer;
• A company responsible for inspection or maintenance;
• A cargo-loading or securement company;
• A manufacturer or supplier of defective equipment; or
• Another driver or company whose negligence contributed to the collision.

Not every truck case involves all of these parties. The goal should not be to name as many defendants as possible. The goal is to determine what actually caused the collision and identify the people or companies legally responsible for those causes.

Injured in an 18-Wheeler Accident in Sugar Land or Fort Bend County, Texas?

The police report is often only the beginning of a serious truck-accident investigation. At Reed & Terry Law Firm, we look beyond the crash report to determine what happened, why it happened, and whether the evidence points to the driver, trucking company, another commercial entity, or a combination of responsible parties.

When appropriate, that investigation can include driver records, electronic logging information, vehicle data, maintenance history, dispatch communications, cargo records, photographs, video, witness testimony, and other evidence surrounding the collision.

If you or a family member has been seriously injured in a commercial-truck accident in Sugar Land, Katy, Richmond/Rosenberg, Victoria, Fort Bend County, or the greater Houston area, call Reed & Terry Law Firm at (281) 491-5000 for a free consultation.

The sooner the investigation begins, the better the opportunity to identify and preserve evidence that may explain why the crash occurred.

When you’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence, you deserve experienced legal guidance from attorneys who understand what’s at stake. The attorneys at Reed & Terry Law Firm have spent decades helping injury victims across Sugar Land, Fort Bend County, and throughout Texas pursue the compensation they deserve. Through personalized representation, thorough case preparation, and dedicated advocacy, our team works to protect your rights while helping you move forward with confidence. Learn more about our attorneys or schedule your free consultation today.

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