Houston Commercial Vehicle Accident Lawyer
A crash with a delivery truck, city bus, or 18-wheeler is not handled like an ordinary car wreck. The vehicle’s size and use can bring federal safety rules into play, the company behind it can share the blame, and its insurance can run far higher than a personal auto policy. A Houston commercial vehicle accident lawyer at The Buzbee Law Firm can explain how each of these factors affects your claim. Call 800-992-5393 to get started.
Every case we take at The Buzbee Law Firm is prepared as if it will be tried to a verdict in front of a jury, including cases against trucking companies and their insurers anywhere in Texas. The first conversation is a free consultation, and you can contact us to set it up.
What Counts as a Commercial Vehicle in Texas?
Under 49 CFR 390.5, a vehicle used on the highway in interstate commerce, meaning transportation that crosses state lines or is part of a trip that does, is a commercial motor vehicle when it meets any of these tests:
- A weight rating or actual weight of 10,001 pounds or more
- Designed or used to carry more than eight passengers, including the driver, for pay
- Designed or used to carry more than 15 passengers, including the driver, without pay
- Hauling hazardous materials in amounts that require placards, the diamond-shaped hazard signs on the vehicle
Texas uses its own test for vehicles that stay inside the state. Section 548.001 of the Texas Transportation Code generally covers an intrastate vehicle weighing more than 26,000 pounds, one built or used to carry more than 15 passengers, or one hauling placarded hazardous materials. Tractor-trailers, many box trucks, larger delivery vans, buses, and dump or utility trucks commonly qualify. Many of these crashes involve large trucks, which our Houston truck accident lawyers handle across Texas.
A wreck with a lighter company car or pickup may fall outside both definitions. The business can still be part of the claim, because Texas courts have held that an employer can be held responsible for an employee’s negligence while the employee is acting within the course and scope of the job.
How Federal and Texas Safety Rules Shape a Claim
Commercial carriers face safety and insurance rules that ordinary drivers do not, and a broken rule can be used as evidence of negligence, meaning a failure to use reasonable care. Texas largely adopts the federal standards for carriers that operate only inside the state.
Three federal regulations bear directly on fault and recovery:
- Driving hours: Under 49 CFR 395.3, a property-carrying driver may drive no more than 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty and may not drive after the 14th hour on duty.
- Minimum insurance: 49 CFR 387.9 requires for-hire interstate carriers hauling general freight in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more to carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, with higher minimums of $1,000,000 for oil and $5,000,000 for certain hazardous materials.
- Driver logs: Under 49 CFR 395.8, a carrier must keep each driver’s hours-of-service records and supporting documents for at least six months.
A preservation letter, a formal written demand that the company keep its logs, electronic data, dispatch records, and maintenance files, is one way to ask a carrier to hold that evidence before routine deletion.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Commercial Vehicle Accident in Houston?
Liability, or legal responsibility for the harm, can reach well past the person behind the wheel. The parties commonly examined include:
- The driver: Careless driving, fatigue, or an hours-of-service violation can show the driver failed to use reasonable care.
- The employer or carrier: The company may answer for a driver who was working at the time, and for its own choices about hiring, scheduling, maintenance, and loading.
- Outside companies: A shop that serviced the brakes, a shipper that loaded the cargo, or the maker of a defective part can share responsibility.
- Other motorists: A crash can involve more than one careless driver, and each one’s share of fault is measured separately.
Houston adds a local rule for city streets. Under Section 45-44 of the Houston Code of Ordinances, a truck or commercial vehicle passing a cyclist, pedestrian, roadside worker, or other vulnerable road user must leave at least 6 feet, double the 3 feet required of a passenger car.
When the injured person was driving a work vehicle, workers’ compensation rules may also apply, alongside any claim against another at-fault driver or company. Our Houston workplace accident lawyers handle those claims.
Can You Still Recover if You Were Partly at Fault?
Yes, within limits. Texas uses a rule called proportionate responsibility: in a lawsuit, the jury or judge assigns a percentage of responsibility to each party, and in a commercial vehicle case that list can include the truck driver, the carrier, an outside maintenance or loading company, and the injured person.
Under Section 33.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a claimant found more than 50% responsible recovers nothing. At 50% or less, Section 33.012 of the same code reduces the award by the claimant’s percentage. For example, suppose a jury finds a car driver who changed lanes in front of a box truck 20% responsible and assigns the other 80% to a truck driver who kept driving past the 14-hour limit and to the carrier that scheduled him. With $100,000 in losses, the car driver would recover $80,000.
What Compensation Can a Claim Include?
Damages, the money the law allows an injured person to recover, generally fall into these categories:
- Medical care, from the emergency room through future treatment
- Lost wages and a reduced ability to earn
- Vehicle repair or replacement and other out-of-pocket costs
- Physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, and disfigurement
In the most serious crashes, such as one that leaves a person with a quadriplegia injury, the cost of lifelong care can become the largest part of the claim.
Coverage is where these claims differ most from a crash between two personal cars. The federal minimum for a for-hire interstate freight carrier is many times what Texas requires on a personal auto policy. When a carrier’s conduct may rise above carelessness, such as knowingly dispatching a driver whose hours logs were falsified, Section 41.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code allows exemplary damages, a separate award meant to punish, if gross negligence, fraud, or malice is proven by clear and convincing evidence.
How Long Do You Have to File a Lawsuit in Texas?
Under Section 16.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a personal injury lawsuit generally must be filed within two years after the day the cause of action accrues, the legal term for when the claim arises, which in a crash case is usually the day of the injury. In a fatal crash, the two years run from the date of death. Because a carrier’s own record-keeping window is far shorter, evidence can be at risk well before the deadline arrives.
Where the case is filed matters too. Section 15.002 of the same code generally allows suit in the county where all or a substantial part of the events happened, so a crash inside Harris County can usually be brought there, before one of the county’s civil district courts.
Talk With a Houston Commercial Vehicle Accident Lawyer
Recovering from a crash while a company and its insurer build their side of the case is a heavy load to carry alone. The Buzbee Law Firm does not take cases only to refer them to other attorneys; we stay with each client until the end. If you are looking for a Houston commercial vehicle accident lawyer, call 800-992-5393 or contact us today to schedule a free consultation.