How truck-crash claims differ from other injury claims

Which trucks are commercial motor vehicles

The federal safety regulations define a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce to include a vehicle whose gross vehicle or combination weight rating, or actual gross weight, is 10,001 pounds or more, along with certain passenger and placarded hazardous-material vehicles. The commercial driver license rules use a different definition, built around a 26,001-pound threshold for combination and heavy straight vehicles. A pickup towing a trailer, a box truck and a tractor-trailer can therefore fall under different rules, and the classification has to be checked rather than assumed.^[1][2]

Rules that apply only to covered drivers

A covered property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty and may not drive beyond the 14th hour after coming on duty. A separate rule bars driving while fatigue or illness makes it unsafe, whatever the logs show. Passenger-car drivers have no comparable federal limits on driving hours, so hours-of-service questions arise in commercial operations rather than in ordinary car trips.^[6][7]

See also: Hours of service for property-carrying drivers

More parties can share responsibility

A motor carrier must require its drivers to observe the federal driver rules, so the carrier's own conduct is part of the inquiry along with the driver's. Under the leasing rules, subject to their exemptions, a written lease of equipment to an authorized carrier must give that carrier exclusive possession, control and use of the equipment and complete responsibility for its operation during the lease. Cargo rules place securement duties on drivers and carriers. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, decided in 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state-law claim that a broker negligently hired a motor carrier fell within the safety exception of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act and was not preempted.^{[8][9][10][11]}

See also: Liability in truck crashes

Records that ordinary drivers do not keep

Covered carriers generally must have drivers record duty status on electronic logging devices, keep a qualification file for each driver, require written reports of defects found in end-of-day vehicle inspections and test drivers after specified crashes. Heavy trucks also use engine control modules, and federally funded research examines how their data can assist reconstruction. The federal event data recorder rule in Part 563 applies only to specified light vehicles equipped with a recorder that meet its weight, manufacturing-date and other applicability conditions, so electronic evidence after a car crash is regulated differently from heavy-truck module data.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}

See also: Engine control modules and electronic crash evidence

Crash configurations specific to large vehicles

Some crash types depend on the size and design of large trucks. A jackknife occurs when a tractor and trailer lose alignment and fold toward each other. Underride occurs when a smaller vehicle passes beneath part of a larger one, and federal standards address rear impact guards on covered trailers. FMCSA also notes that large trucks have large blind spots and long stopping distances and make wide turns.^{[18][19][20][21]}

See also: Underride crashes

Insurance minimums differ

Georgia's insurance regulator lists the state's minimum liability limits as $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 per incident and $25,000 for property damage. Federal rules set a $750,000 minimum for for-hire carriers hauling nonhazardous property in interstate commerce in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more, with higher minimums for some hazardous cargo. Neither figure shows the coverage actually available for a particular crash, which depends on the policies in force.^[22][23][24]

See also: Motor-carrier minimum financial responsibility

Rules that stay the same

Several Georgia rules apply to injury claims generally. The two-year limitation period for injuries to the person is not specific to trucks. The comparative-fault statute reduces damages by the plaintiff's share of fault and bars damages when that share is 50 percent or more, whether the other vehicle was a car or a tractor-trailer. The rule making an employer liable for a servant's torts within the scope of the business applies to any employer, and the wrongful-death statutes identify claimants without regard to the type of vehicle involved.^{[3][5][25][26]}

See also: Wrongful death after a truck crash

Medical descriptions are not vehicle-specific either. The CDC describes a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury as one caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or by a penetrating injury, and NINDS describes a spinal cord injury as damage to the spinal cord, which can follow direct injury to the cord or damage to the surrounding tissue and vertebrae. What a truck case adds is evidence about the collision and the parties, not a separate body of injury law.^[27][28]

See also: Brain and spinal cord injuries after truck crashes

See also

• FMCSA and federal trucking rules
• Liability in truck crashes
• Motor-carrier minimum financial responsibility
• Engine control modules and electronic crash evidence
• Brain and spinal cord injuries after truck crashes
• Timeline of records and deadlines after a tractor-trailer crash