Timeline of records and deadlines after a tractor-trailer crash

The first hours: post-accident testing

Section 382.303 requires an employer to test its surviving driver after a covered crash involving a death. It also requires testing after certain injury or tow-away crashes when the driver receives a citation for a moving violation arising from the crash. If a required alcohol test is not given within two hours, the employer must record why, and attempts stop after eight hours. Attempts at a controlled-substances test stop after 32 hours. The resulting test records are kept far longer, as the table below shows.^[4][7]

See also: Commercial driver drug and alcohol testing

Minimum retention periods for carrier records

The shortest periods apply to records made in the ordinary course of a trip. Driver vehicle inspection reports, with the certification of repairs, must be kept for three months from the date the report was prepared. Records of duty status and their supporting documents must be kept for at least six months. Supporting documents include bills of lading, dispatch records, expense receipts, fleet-management communications and payroll records.^[1][2][8]

See also: Electronic logging devices and duty-status records

Other records last longer. Maintenance and inspection records must be kept for one year where the vehicle is housed or maintained, and for six months after it leaves the carrier's control. A periodic inspection report is kept for 14 months. The accident register covers three years after each accident, and a driver qualification file is generally kept while the driver is employed and for three years afterward.^{[5][9][10][11]}

See also: Truck inspection, repair and maintenance

Retention periods and the duty to preserve

A retention period sets how long a carrier must keep a record in the ordinary course. It does not settle whether the carrier may discard that record after an injury crash. In Phillips v. Harmon, the Supreme Court of Georgia explained that the duty to preserve relevant evidence arises when litigation is reasonably foreseeable to the party controlling it. Notice from the injured person is one route, but the Court also pointed to circumstances such as the type and extent of the injury and the defendant's own investigation and notice to its insurer.^[6]

A preservation letter from the injured person's side is a direct form of that notice and can name the vehicles, electronic data and records to be kept. The letter does not prove what existed or what was lost. A trial court deciding a spoliation question has wide discretion and rules on the facts of the case.^[6]

See also: Engine control modules and electronic crash evidence

One firm's stated practice

Flanagan Law's truck-accident page says its attorneys send a spoliation letter in the first week, and sometimes on the first day, demanding that the trucking company preserve black box data, driver logs, dash camera footage and maintenance records. The page states that trucking companies are allowed to erase some of that material on a schedule. Those statements describe the firm's own practice; the periods in this entry come from the regulations cited above.^[12]

See also: Flanagan Law truck-accident practice

Filing deadlines and notice to governments

For a lawsuit, Georgia's general period for injuries to the person is two years after the right of action accrues, subject to exceptions, and the period for damage to personal property such as a vehicle is four years. A claim against a government body comes with earlier requirements: a claim against a city must be presented in writing within six months of the event, a claim against a county within 12 months after it accrues, with a separate period for minors and others under a disability, and a state tort claim needs written notice within 12 months after the loss was or should have been discovered. The city and state statutes also set requirements for what the notice contains and how it is delivered.^{[3][13][14][15][16]}

See also: Georgia truck-crash law notes

How the periods compare

The federal retention periods and the state filing periods do not line up. A lawsuit filed well inside the two-year period can still come after the three-month and six-month record periods have ended. Discovery in a filed case is the formal process through which the parties exchange documents, but it can reach only what still exists.^{[17][1][2][3]}

The sources in this entry set periods for carriers and claimants; none sets a time for hiring a lawyer, and this entry does not suggest one. The table shows what can change while that question is open: testing windows close within 32 hours, routine trip and inspection records can reach the end of their required retention within months, and most filing deadlines run in years, with earlier notice requirements for claims against governments.^[4][1][2][3]

See also: Truck-crash claims and litigation costs

See also

• Carrier records, preservation and spoliation
• Commercial driver drug and alcohol testing
• Electronic logging devices and duty-status records
• Truck inspection, repair and maintenance
• Georgia truck-crash law notes
• Truck-crash claims and litigation costs