Truck Accident Laws in Indiana (2026): Deadlines & Liability

A crash with a large commercial truck in Indiana is governed by two layers of law at the same time: Indiana rules on deadlines, fault, and insurance, and a thick body of federal safety regulations that apply to interstate trucking companies and their drivers. Together they shape who can be held responsible and how long you have to act. This page explains both, as general legal information rather than legal advice.

The deadline to sue in Indiana

Indiana sets a two-year statute of limitations for actions for injury to person or character under IC 34-11-2-4. For most truck crashes the clock starts on the date of the collision. A wrongful-death claim arising from a fatal truck crash must also be brought within two years, and under IC 34-23-1-1 that action is filed by the personal representative of the decedent's estate, generally within two years of the death.

A few situations change the deadline. The period can be tolled for an injured minor or a person under a legal disability, and limited doctrines such as fraudulent concealment can extend it in rare cases. A claim against a governmental entity is subject to the Indiana Tort Claims Act, which requires a written tort-claims notice well before the lawsuit deadline (often within 180 days for a political subdivision), so those claims demand fast action. Because the exceptions are narrow and courts enforce the deadline strictly, the safest course is to treat two years as a hard limit.

How fault works: Indiana modified comparative fault

Indiana uses modified comparative fault under the Comparative Fault Act (IC 34-51-2). Your damages are reduced in proportion to your own share of fault, and under IC 34-51-2-6 you are barred from recovering anything if your contributory fault is greater than the fault of all other persons who contributed to your damages. In practice this means you can recover if you are 50% or less at fault, but at 51% or more your claim fails. This is often called the 51% bar.

In a truck case, fault can be divided among several parties, including the driver, the motor carrier, and others who contributed to the crash. Because your own percentage directly reduces (and can eliminate) your recovery, the way fault is apportioned is often a central issue, and identifying every responsible party can be important to a full recovery. One note: when the defendant is a governmental entity, Indiana applies a stricter common-law contributory-negligence standard rather than the Comparative Fault Act.

No-fault status: Indiana is an at-fault state

Indiana is not a no-fault state. It does not require personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, and there is no statutory injury threshold you must cross before you can sue. Instead, the driver and company at fault for the crash are directly responsible for the resulting harm, and you pursue them and their insurers for medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering, and other losses. This is a meaningful difference from no-fault states, where an injured person first turns to their own PIP coverage and must clear a threshold before stepping outside the no-fault system.

Damage caps in Indiana

Indiana places no general statutory cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary personal-injury or wrongful-death case against a private defendant, and a separate statutory cap applies to medical-malpractice claims. Punitive damages, however, are capped: under IC 34-51-3-4 a punitive award may not exceed the greater of three times the compensatory damages or $50,000, and most of any punitive award is paid to the state's violent crime victims compensation fund rather than to the plaintiff. Punitive damages are also generally not available in a wrongful-death case.

A second cap matters when the truck belongs to a government body, such as a municipal, county, transit, or state-agency vehicle. Under the Indiana Tort Claims Act, IC 34-13-3-4 limits the combined aggregate liability of all governmental entities and all public employees acting within the scope of their employment to $700,000 for injury to or death of one person, for a cause of action that accrues on or after January 1, 2008, and to $5,000,000 for injury to or death of all persons in that one occurrence. The same section, at subsection (b), provides that a governmental entity or an employee acting within the scope of employment is not liable for punitive damages, so the punitive-damages rule described above does not reach that class of defendant. These are the same claims that require an early written tort-claims notice, described in the deadline section above.

Insurance context in Indiana

Indiana requires every driver to carry minimum auto liability coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage, as enforced by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Indiana policies also generally include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless rejected in writing. Those minimums are modest, but a commercial truck operating in interstate commerce is subject to the much higher federal financial-responsibility rules discussed below, which is one reason trucking cases differ from ordinary car crashes.

Federal FMCSA rules that apply to trucking companies

Most large commercial trucks and the companies that run them are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules set the safety baseline, and a violation can be powerful evidence of negligence:

• Hours of service (49 CFR Part 395): a property-carrying driver may drive no more than 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, cannot drive beyond the 14th hour after coming on duty, must take a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and is capped at 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days.
• Electronic logging devices (49 CFR Part 395): most drivers must record their hours with an ELD, and carriers must retain the data, which can confirm or contradict a fatigue defense.
• Driver qualification and CDL (49 CFR Part 391): carriers must verify a driver's license, medical fitness, and record before putting them on the road.
• Drug and alcohol testing (49 CFR Part 382): carriers must conduct pre-employment, random, and post-accident testing and use the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse.
• Inspection, repair, and maintenance (49 CFR Part 396): carriers must systematically inspect and maintain their vehicles and keep records.

Who can be liable after a truck crash

A truck case routinely involves more potential defendants than a typical car crash, and many are corporate. Depending on the facts, responsibility may extend to:

• The driver, for negligent driving such as speeding, distraction, or fatigue.
• The motor carrier (trucking company), often vicariously for its driver's on-the-job conduct, and directly for negligent hiring, training, supervision, or retention, or for pressuring drivers past the hours-of-service limits.
• A broker or shipper, in some circumstances.
• A cargo loader, when improper or overweight loading causes or worsens a crash.
• A parts or vehicle manufacturer, when a defective brake, tire, or component contributes.

Identifying every responsible party matters because, under Indiana's comparative-fault apportionment, fault is allocated among everyone who contributed, and additional defendants can mean additional insurance coverage.

Federal minimum insurance for trucks

Under 49 CFR 387.9, a for-hire motor carrier transporting non-hazardous general freight in interstate commerce must maintain at least $750,000 in liability insurance. Carriers hauling certain hazardous materials must carry far more, generally $1,000,000 or $5,000,000 depending on the commodity. That $750,000 baseline, rooted in the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, dwarfs the $25,000 minimum for ordinary Indiana drivers and is a major reason truck cases are handled differently from car-accident claims.

Why evidence preservation matters early

Much of the proof in a truck case lives in the truck and the carrier's files: ELD and logbook records, the engine control module (the truck's onboard data recorder or black box), maintenance and inspection logs, dispatch records, and the post-accident drug-and-alcohol test. Some of that data can be overwritten or routinely discarded within months. A timely spoliation letter, also called an evidence-preservation letter, sent early to the carrier, helps ensure this information is kept rather than lost.

How to evaluate an Indiana truck-accident claim

If you have been injured, preserve what you can: the police report, photographs of the scene and vehicles, the names of witnesses, and your medical records. Get medical care and keep documentation of your treatment and lost income. Many Indiana personal-injury attorneys evaluate truck cases on a contingency-fee basis and offer a free initial consultation, meaning no upfront fee, though no lawyer can guarantee a result. Because the two-year deadline is firm and evidence can disappear, it is wise to consult a licensed Indiana attorney promptly rather than waiting.