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Houston Truck Accident Lawyer
A truck wreck is not a bad car wreck. It is a different case entirely — more defendants, far larger policies, and a trucking company whose investigators may reach the scene before you have left the hospital.
- No fee unless we win
- Free, no-obligation consultation
- 18-wheeler and commercial vehicle cases
Why a truck case is not a car case
When a passenger car hits you, there is usually one driver and one insurance policy. When an 18-wheeler hits you, there may be the driver, the trucking company, the owner of the trailer, the company that loaded it, and the maintenance contractor — each with its own insurer and its own lawyer, and a commercial policy worth many times what a personal auto policy carries. In Texas you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file suit, but the evidence that decides these cases can be gone in a matter of weeks.
If you were hit by a passenger vehicle rather than a commercial truck, start with the Houston car accident page instead. If you are not sure what hit you, call 281-888-8137 and we will work it out.
Why a truck wreck is a different case
Drew on the parties involved, the data the truck records about itself, and the letter that keeps it from disappearing.
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Who can be held responsible
In a car wreck you are usually looking at one driver. In a truck wreck, responsibility is often spread across several companies — and finding all of them is a large part of the work, because each one carries its own insurance.
The driver
Fatigue, speed, distraction, or driving beyond the hours federal rules allow.
The trucking company
Hiring, training, supervision, unrealistic schedules, and pressure to keep moving.
The trailer’s owner
The tractor and the trailer frequently belong to different companies entirely.
The company that loaded it
Shifting, overweight, or improperly secured freight changes how a truck stops and turns.
The maintenance contractor
Brakes, tires, and lighting are inspected on a schedule. Sometimes they are not.
The insurers behind them
Commercial policies are written in the millions, and every one of them has counsel.
How much insurance is actually behind the truck
This is the most practical difference between a truck case and a car case, and it is worth being specific about. Texas requires a private driver to carry 30/60/25 — thirty thousand dollars for injuries to one person, sixty thousand per crash, twenty-five thousand for property damage. A great many drivers on Houston freeways carry exactly that and no more. One ambulance ride, an emergency room visit and an MRI can exhaust it before anyone has mentioned surgery.
- $750,000 — ordinary freight
- The federal minimum for a for-hire carrier hauling non-hazardous property in a vehicle rated over 10,001 pounds. This is the figure behind most of the trucks you pass on I-10.
- $1,000,000 — oil and most hazardous materials
- Applies to oil, hazardous waste, and the hazardous materials and substances listed in the federal tables that do not fall into the highest category.
- $5,000,000 — the high-hazard tier
- Bulk Division 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 explosives, poison-gas and certain other high-hazard loads, whatever the size of the vehicle carrying them.
- $500,000 — Texas intrastate
- The state minimum for a commercial vehicle over 26,000 pounds that stays inside Texas and never crosses a state line.
Those are floors, not ceilings. Larger carriers routinely hold excess layers well above them, and in a serious case the excess is often where the real coverage sits.
Two things follow from that, and they pull against each other. In a truck case the money to make someone whole after a catastrophic injury usually exists, where in a car case it frequently does not. And precisely because it exists, the defense is better funded, better organized, and involved a great deal earlier.
Which of those figures applies depends on what the truck was carrying — one more reason to write down whatever was painted on the door.
Federal minimums are set by 49 CFR 387.9. The Texas intrastate figure is set by 43 TAC §218.16.
What kind of crash it was tells you where to look
How a truck crash happened usually narrows down who is responsible for it, before anyone has seen a single document.
Jackknife
The trailer swings out of line with the tractor, usually under hard braking or on a wet surface. Points toward speed for the conditions, brake balance and maintenance, and sometimes a trailer running light or loaded unevenly.
Underride
A car ends up beneath the trailer, most often at the rear or along the side. These are the most lethal crashes on this list, because the passenger compartment takes the impact directly. The questions are about rear guards, reflective tape, and whether a trailer lying across a dark lane was visible at all.
Rollover
Load height, speed through a curve, and cargo that moved. Around Houston it is the connector ramps that produce them — Beltway 8 to 290, 610 to I-10 — where a loaded trailer meets a tightening radius.
Wide turn and blind spot
A tractor-trailer swings wide to make a right turn, or changes lanes across a no-zone. Points at training, route planning and mirror discipline far more often than at mechanical failure.
Tire and brake failure
Rarely as sudden as it looks. There is normally an inspection history, a driver vehicle inspection report or a repair invoice sitting behind it, which is exactly why the maintenance file is worth preserving early.
Unsecured or spilled cargo
Points away from the driver and toward whoever loaded and secured the freight — frequently a different company altogether, with its own insurer and its own lawyers.
The evidence has a shelf life
A modern 18-wheeler records a great deal about itself — speed, braking, throttle, and how many hours the driver had been behind the wheel. That record is the best account of what actually happened, and it is not preserved automatically. Larger carriers have rapid response teams that can be photographing the scene and interviewing their driver the same day, while you are still being treated.
What to do in the first week
Truck cases reward moving early more than almost any other kind of injury case, because the other side is already moving.
- 1
Get treated and keep going
Commercial vehicle impacts carry far more force. Injuries that seem manageable in week one often are not, and a gap in treatment is the first thing the defense will point at. If you are worried about paying for that care, read who pays your medical bills and how a letter of protection works.
- 2
Write down what the truck said on it
Company name, DOT number, trailer markings, anything painted on the door. That is often how we identify which companies are actually involved.
- 3
Do not talk to their investigator
Someone may contact you quickly, and they will be pleasant about it. They work for the carrier, not for you, and the conversation is not neutral.
- 4
Do not let the vehicles be repaired yet
Your car and the truck are both evidence. Once they are fixed or scrapped, the physical proof of the impact is gone.
- 5
Get a preservation letter out
This is the piece with a clock on it. The sooner the carrier is formally on notice, the more of the record still exists when we ask for it.
The federal rules that sit on top of Texas law
- Hours of service
- A property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, within a 14-hour on-duty window, with a 30-minute break required after 8 cumulative hours of driving. Weekly limits cap total on-duty time. Violations of these limits are among the most common findings in a serious truck case, and the electronic logs are what prove them.
- Electronic logging
- Most interstate carriers are required to record duty status electronically rather than on paper. That record is far harder to reconstruct after the fact than a handwritten log book — which is precisely why preserving it early matters.
- Weight limits
- Federal law caps gross vehicle weight on the interstate system at 80,000 pounds without a permit. Overweight and improperly distributed loads change how a truck brakes and how it behaves in a turn, and they point responsibility toward whoever loaded it.
- Driver qualification and testing
- Carriers must verify a driver’s licensing and medical certification, investigate their employment history, and maintain a qualification file. Drug and alcohol testing after a serious crash is mandatory within set time limits. Gaps in any of that can establish negligence by the company itself, separate from the driver.
- Inspection and maintenance
- Trucks are subject to periodic inspection requirements, and drivers must report defects. Brake and tire failures are rarely sudden — they usually have a paper trail behind them.
Why Houston truck cases are not like truck cases elsewhere
Houston moves more tonnage than any other port in the country and sits at the center of the largest petrochemical complex in the United States. The practical consequence for injury cases is that a great deal of the commercial traffic here is not general freight. It is tank trucks, chemical loads and heavy equipment running to and from the Ship Channel.
That changes a case in three concrete ways. It changes which insurance schedule applies, because a tanker carrying a listed hazardous material sits on the million or five-million dollar tier rather than the seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand one. It changes who investigates, because a hazardous release brings in agencies that never attend an ordinary wreck, and generates a documentary record that would not otherwise exist. And it changes what the evidence looks like: the shipping papers, the bill of lading and the placards on the trailer tell you what was aboard, and therefore which federal rules the carrier was operating under that day.
If you were hit by a commercial vehicle and you are not yet certain who was operating it, the crash report is the document that names the carrier and the vehicle, and it is worth getting early. And if someone from the carrier has already rung you, this is what that conversation is actually for.
Where we practice
The office is in Houston and most cases are filed in Harris County, but commercial truck crashes rarely stay inside one county. We handle wrecks across Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston, and Waller counties, and along the freight corridors that feed the port — I-10 through Katy and the Energy Corridor, I-45, US 59 and 290, Beltway 8, and the Grand Parkway.
Houston’s port and petrochemical traffic means a large share of these crashes involve carriers headquartered somewhere else entirely. That does not put them out of reach; it does mean identifying and serving the right corporate entities early, before the trail cools.
Frequently asked questions
Who can be held responsible for a truck accident in Texas?
Often more than one party. Depending on what caused the crash, responsibility can reach the driver, the trucking company, the owner of the trailer, the company that loaded the freight, and the contractor responsible for maintenance. Each typically carries separate insurance.
What is a spoliation letter?
A formal written demand that the trucking company preserve evidence such as driver logs, onboard data, maintenance records, and the driver qualification file, instead of letting it be overwritten or discarded on the normal schedule.
What is the black box on a commercial truck?
Commercial trucks carry electronic systems that record operating data such as speed, braking, and throttle, along with electronic logging devices that record how long the driver had been on duty.
How long do I have to file a truck accident lawsuit in Texas?
Generally two years from the date of the crash, the same as other Texas personal injury claims. The practical deadline is much sooner, because the evidence that proves the case has its own shorter retention periods.
Should I talk to the trucking company’s investigator?
Not before you have talked to your own lawyer. The person calling works for the carrier or its insurer. You are under no obligation to give them a statement.
How is a truck case different from a car accident case?
More defendants, larger policies, federal safety regulations layered on top of Texas law, and a defense that frequently begins investigating within hours.
How much insurance do commercial trucks carry?
Far more than a private driver. Federal minimums for interstate carriers start well above Texas passenger-vehicle minimums and rise with the cargo carried, and many carriers hold additional excess coverage on top of that.
What are hours-of-service rules?
Federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and remain on duty before taking mandatory rest. A property-carrying driver may generally drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, within a 14-hour window. Exceeding those limits is a frequent factor in serious crashes.
What if the truck driver worked for a company in another state?
That is common in Houston, given the port and freight traffic. It does not prevent a claim. It does mean identifying the correct corporate entities and serving them properly, which is easier the earlier it starts.
Client Reviews
The cases are bigger. The communication should not change.
A truck case brings in more parties, more evidence and more time than a car claim. These clients came through that process, and what they mention afterward is being kept informed while it ran.
From the beginning, Drew explained the entire process to me and it went exactly as he predicted. He always kept us updated and looked out for our best interest. Always gave us his advice while letting us make the decision.
I’m incredibly grateful for the support and dedication my attorney Mr. Shirley showed throughout my auto injury case. From the very beginning, they kept me informed, answered every question, and truly fought to make sure I was treated fairly.…
After my accident, I was overwhelmed, stressed, and unsure about what to do next.… Every time I had questions or felt anxious about the process, they were patient, reassuring, and always kept me updated.…
Where to find me
The office is at 4900 Woodway Drive, Suite 900, in Uptown Houston, just inside the 610 Loop. Most of this can be handled over the phone — but if you would rather sit down with the paperwork in front of you, the door is open.
Tell me what happened
The consultation is free, there is no obligation, and you will speak with an attorney — not a call center. If we take your case, you owe nothing unless we recover for you.