What to Do After a Truck Accident: Your Roadmap to Recovery

A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs up to 80,000 pounds, twenty times the weight of the car it hits. That difference is why truck crashes on I-95, I-595, the Turnpike and the roads feeding Port Everglades so often end in catastrophic injury or death, and it is why a truck accident claim is not just a bigger version of a car accident claim. Federal safety rules apply. Several companies may be responsible. And the trucking company’s insurer usually has investigators at the scene before the tow truck leaves. This roadmap walks through what to do in the hours, days and weeks after a truck accident in Florida to protect your health and your claim.

Step 1: Get medical care, and get it within 14 days

Call 911 and accept transport if it is offered. Even if you walk away, see a doctor within a few days. Internal bleeding, concussions and spinal injuries frequently show no symptoms until the adrenaline wears off. There is also a legal reason: under Florida’s no-fault law your own PIP coverage pays the first $10,000 of medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault, but only if you receive initial treatment within 14 days of the crash. Miss that window and the benefit is gone.

Step 2: Make sure law enforcement documents the crash

On the interstates the Florida Highway Patrol usually responds; on local roads it will be the Broward Sheriff’s Office or a city department. Give the officer the facts, ask for the report number, and request a copy of the Florida Traffic Crash Report when it is available. If the truck driver is cited, that citation is evidence. If the crash involved an injury, a fatality or a vehicle towed from the scene, federal rules may also require the carrier to drug and alcohol test the driver, and the results become part of the case.

Step 3: Capture what only exists at the scene

• Photograph the truck from every side, including the company name, the USDOT number and the MC number on the cab door, the trailer number, license plates on both the tractor and trailer, and any hazmat placards.
• Photograph the cargo, the load straps or tarps, and anything that shifted or spilled. Improper loading is a frequent cause and a separate source of liability.
• Photograph your vehicle, the road, skid marks, debris, traffic signals and weather.
• Get the driver’s name, license, employer and insurance information. Ask who owns the trailer; it is often a different company.
• Get names and numbers of witnesses before they drive away.

Step 4: Say as little as possible

Trucking companies and their insurers often dispatch “rapid response” teams to serious crashes. They are polite, and they are there to gather statements that limit the company’s exposure. Do not discuss fault, do not estimate your speed, do not say you are fine, and do not give a recorded statement to anyone from the carrier or its insurer. Answer the investigating officer’s questions truthfully and leave it there.

Step 5: Lock down the evidence that disappears

This is the step most people miss, and it is the one that most often decides a truck case. A truck crash generates evidence that the carrier controls and that the law allows it to discard on a schedule:

• Engine control module and event data recorder: speed, braking, throttle and following distance in the seconds before impact. Can be overwritten when the truck is put back in service or repaired.
• Electronic logging device records: federal hours-of-service rules cap a driver at 11 hours of driving in a 14-hour window after 10 hours off, with a 30-minute break after eight hours and a 60- or 70-hour weekly limit. Carriers are required to keep the logs for only six months.
• Dashcam and in-cab camera footage: many fleets record both the road and the driver. Footage loops over quickly.
• The driver qualification file: license history, medical certificate, prior crashes and violations, and training records. It shows whether the company should have let this driver drive.
• Post-crash drug and alcohol test results, maintenance and inspection records, dispatch communications, bills of lading and the driver’s cell phone records.

A written preservation demand, sometimes called a spoliation letter, puts the carrier on notice that it must keep all of this. If it destroys evidence after notice, Florida courts can instruct the jury to presume the evidence would have hurt the carrier. That letter should go out within days, not months.

Step 6: Document your own losses

Keep every medical bill, prescription receipt, mileage log and piece of correspondence. Get a letter from your employer documenting missed time and lost pay. Write down what happened while it is fresh, and keep a short daily note on pain, sleep, mobility and what you can no longer do. In a serious injury case, a life care planner and an economist will eventually turn this record into the future medical and lost earning capacity numbers that drive the value of the claim.

Step 7: Understand who may be responsible

Unlike a car crash, a truck crash often has several liable parties: the driver; the motor carrier that employed or leased the driver; the owner of the tractor or trailer if different; the shipper or loader who secured the cargo; the broker who arranged the haul; a maintenance contractor; and the manufacturer of a failed component such as brakes or tires. Interstate carriers are required to carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and most carry $1 million or more, which is exactly why their insurers fight so hard. Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule means the carrier will try to assign you more than 50 percent of the fault, which would bar your recovery entirely. You have two years from the crash to file a negligence or wrongful death lawsuit, and the investigation has to be well underway before then.

The Injury Advocates is a Plantation-based personal injury firm serving Fort Lauderdale, Broward County and South Florida. If a commercial truck injured you or killed someone in your family, call (754) 812-8444 or 833-DARFOOR, or send us a message. The consultation is free and you owe no fees or costs unless we recover for you. Learn more about our truck accident practice, or read about the most common causes of truck accidents and the injuries they cause.