Can I Sue the Trucking Company After a Texas Truck Crash?

Who You Actually Sue After a Truck Crash

In a car crash, you sue the other driver. In a truck crash, that instinct leaves most of the case on the table. The driver may have made the final mistake, but the company that hired, trained, scheduled, equipped, and dispatched that driver is usually the defendant with the money to answer for it, and it is the party the law most directly regulates.

Two routes run in parallel. Vicarious liability makes the carrier answer for the driver's negligence committed in the course and scope of the driving job. Direct liability makes the carrier answer for its own conduct: who it hired, how it trained and supervised, what it knew about the truck, and what schedule it demanded. The driver can be named as a defendant as well, and often is, but the carrier's policy is typically the larger one. Our guide to who is liable in a Texas truck accident maps the full set of parties, including manufacturers and maintenance contractors.

Vicarious Liability: The Company Answers for the Driver

Texas follows the long-standing rule that an employer is responsible for the negligent acts of an employee performed within the scope of employment, which lawyers call respondeat superior. In a truck case, the practical question is whether the driver was acting within the course and scope of the carrier's business at the time of the crash: making a delivery, repositioning a trailer, deadheading back to the yard. A driver running a purely personal errand is a different case.

Texas also has a statute that governs how these claims are tried. Chapter 72, Subchapter B of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code applies to commercial motor vehicle collision actions. Under Section 72.054, if the employer stipulates that the person operating the truck was its employee acting within the scope of employment at the time of the collision, the employer's liability for the driver's ordinary negligence is based only on respondeat superior. If the defendant stipulates and the trial is bifurcated under Section 72.052, the claimant may not present evidence in the first phase on an ordinary-negligence claim against the employer, such as negligent entrustment, that requires a finding that the employee drove negligently. Section 72.053 separately governs when evidence of a failure to comply with a regulation or standard may come in during that first phase. There are statutory exceptions, and the defendant's choice to stipulate drives much of this. Fault among the named parties is still apportioned under Chapter 33, and the same chapter bars recovery entirely if your own share of responsibility is greater than 50 percent.

What If the Driver Was an Independent Contractor?

This is the defense carriers reach for first, and the paperwork often does call the driver an independent contractor, an owner-operator, or a leased driver. The contract label does not end the inquiry.

Federal motor carrier rules define "employee" to include a driver of a commercial motor vehicle, and the definition expressly reaches an independent contractor while in the course of operating a commercial motor vehicle. That language appears in the general definitions at 49 CFR 390.5, and it is why the federal safety duties follow the driver regardless of the contract label. That definition governs who must comply with the safety rules. Whether the carrier also answers in damages for the driver's negligence is a separate question decided under Texas agency law and the federal leasing rules, which is where the control factors come in: who dispatched the driver, who set the schedule, who controlled the equipment and the haul, and who could remove the driver from the load. The truth-in-leasing regulations at 49 CFR 376.12(c)(4) expressly leave the employee-versus-independent-contractor question where state law puts it, so a lease clause is a fact to weigh rather than a conclusion.

Where the carrier controlled the work, a claim against the company can proceed even though the driver was paid on a 1099. Where the driver genuinely operated an independent business with no carrier control, the analysis shifts. Either way, the driver's own conduct and the driver's own policy remain part of the case.

The Company's Own Failures: Direct Negligence

Vicarious liability borrows the driver's fault. Direct negligence is the company's own, and the federal rules create records that show what a carrier knew and when. One caveat before the list: Chapter 72, Subchapter B, described above, can limit how much of an ordinary-negligence case against the employer reaches the first phase of a bifurcated trial when the carrier stipulates that the driver was its employee acting in scope. That does not erase these claims, and it does not apply to a claim that does not depend on proving the driver was negligent. It does change how and when the evidence is presented, and it is one of the first things to check in a Texas commercial vehicle case.

• Negligent hiring and qualification. A carrier may not permit a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle unless that person is qualified, under 49 CFR 391.11, and it must investigate each driver's record, including inquiries to licensing authorities and previous employers, under 49 CFR 391.23. The driver qualification file is where a failure to check shows up, and both inquiries carry a deadline: the driving record and the three-year safety performance history must be in the file within 30 days of the driver's start date, so a missing or late record is itself provable.
• Negligent training and supervision. What the company taught, what it retrained after complaints, and what it did with its own safety scores.
• Negligent maintenance. Inspection and repair records, and whether a truck with a known brake or tire defect stayed in service.
• Unrealistic scheduling. Dispatch messages that demand a run which cannot be completed inside the federal hours-of-service limits put the company's own conduct in issue.

Two of those records disappear on a clock. Federal rules set only a floor on retention: a carrier must keep each driver's records of duty status and supporting documents for not less than six months from the date of receipt, under 49 CFR 395.8(k), with the same six-month minimum applied to electronic logging device records under 49 CFR 395.22(i). Some carriers keep records longer, and a carrier on notice of a claim has a duty to preserve them, but nothing obliges a carrier to hold them past that floor, and the truck's engine control module can be overwritten once the rig returns to service. That is why a spoliation letter goes out at the start of a case rather than after the file is worked up. Our guide to truck black box data covers what the engine module actually records.

Brokers and Shippers: A Harder Case, Honestly

A freight broker is a person who, for compensation, arranges the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier, as defined in 49 CFR 371.2. When a broker places a load with a carrier it knew or should have known was unsafe, that is a negligent-selection claim.

We will not pretend that is easy. Broker defendants routinely argue that federal law preempts state-law claims against them under 49 U.S.C. 14501(c), the provision that deregulated broker and carrier rates and services. Courts have divided on how far that preemption reaches and on which claims survive it, so the viability of a broker claim turns on the specific theory pleaded, the facts about what the broker knew, and the court hearing the case. We raise it when the facts support it and tell clients plainly when they do not.

Shippers and loading companies stand on different ground. Whoever loads a trailer owes a duty to load and secure it properly, and an overloaded or badly balanced load can cause a rollover or jackknife regardless of how well the driver performs. That is a direct claim against the party that loaded the freight.

If the Truck or the Driver Has No Insurance

Most for-hire interstate carriers must carry minimum liability coverage under 49 CFR 387.9, and a carrier operating only inside Texas must meet the state requirement under Transportation Code Chapter 643. Those figures are context for what may be collectible. They are not a floor on what an injury is worth and not a ceiling on recovery, and the actual policy may be higher or may be shared among several people hurt in the same crash.

When coverage is thin or nonexistent, the case does not end. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may respond, and a claim against the driver personally is still available even where collection is uncertain. The practical answer is to identify every policy in the chain early, which is one of the first things we do on a new truck case. Our Texas truck insurance minimums page sets out the tiers.

How Long You Have to Sue a Trucking Company in Texas

Two years from the date of the crash for a personal injury claim, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003. If a government vehicle was involved, the Texas Tort Claims Act requires notice far sooner than that, and city charters can require it sooner still. The evidence deadline is shorter than any of them: driver logs that only have to be kept for six months from receipt, and engine data that can be gone the moment the truck is repaired or reassigned. If you were hurt by a commercial truck in Texas, treat the first weeks as the window that matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue the trucking company if the driver was at fault?

Yes. In most Texas truck crash claims the motor carrier is the central defendant. A carrier is answerable for its driver's negligence committed in the course and scope of the driving job, and it can also be sued directly for its own failures, such as putting an unqualified driver behind the wheel, skipping maintenance, or scheduling loads that cannot be run lawfully. The driver can be named as well, but the company usually carries the larger insurance policy.

Can I sue a trucking company if the driver was an independent contractor?

Often yes. Federal motor carrier rules define an employee to include a driver of a commercial motor vehicle, expressly including an independent contractor while operating the vehicle, so the label in a lease or contractor agreement does not settle the question. Texas also looks at how much control the company actually exercised over the driver's work. Where the company dispatched, supervised, or equipped the driver, a claim against the carrier can proceed alongside any claim against the driver.

Can I sue the broker or the shipper after a truck accident?

Sometimes, and the law here is genuinely contested. A freight broker that arranges transportation for compensation can be sued for negligently selecting an unsafe carrier, and whoever loaded the trailer owes a duty to load and secure the cargo properly. Broker claims face a federal preemption defense under 49 U.S.C. 14501(c), and courts have divided on how far it reaches, so whether a broker claim is viable depends on the facts and the court.

What evidence proves the trucking company is liable?

The carrier's own records usually decide it: the driver qualification file required by 49 CFR Part 391, hours-of-service and electronic logging data, maintenance and inspection records, dispatch messages and schedules, the truck's engine control module data, and the crash register the carrier must keep. Federal rules require records of duty status to be kept for a minimum of six months from receipt, not a day longer unless a preservation duty has attached, so these records are the reason preservation demands go out immediately.

How long do I have to sue a trucking company in Texas?

Two years from the date of the crash for a personal injury claim under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. If a government vehicle was involved, the notice period is far shorter. The practical deadline is much earlier than the filing deadline because driver logs, engine data, and camera footage are routinely gone within months.

Hurt by a Commercial Truck in Texas? Find Out Who Is Answerable

The company that put the truck on the road is usually the party that answers for it, and the records that prove it belong to the company. We will tell you which claims the evidence in your case supports, and which it does not. The review is free, and you owe no attorney's fee unless we recover for you. Tell us what happened.

This article is general information about Texas law and federal motor carrier rules. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether a particular company, broker, or driver can be sued depends on facts and on how courts in the relevant jurisdiction treat each claim.