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

A collision with a commercial truck in Kansas is governed by two different bodies of law at once. State law sets the deadline to file, decides how shared fault affects recovery, and runs the state's no-fault insurance system. A separate layer of federal trucking regulation, enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), sets safety rules for the driver and the trucking company, and violations of those rules are frequently the central evidence in a serious truck case.

This guide explains the Kansas deadlines and rules first, then the uniform federal trucking framework that applies in every state. It is general legal information, not legal advice about any specific case.

This guide is part of our Truck Accident Laws by State series.

The deadline to file in Kansas

Under K.S.A. 60-513, an action for injury to the person must be brought within two years. For a truck-crash injury, that two-year clock generally starts on the date of the collision. Kansas also recognizes a discovery rule for injuries that are not reasonably ascertainable at first, but it imposes an absolute ten-year outer limit on most such claims.

A Kansas wrongful-death action, brought when a crash is fatal, also carries a two-year limit, and that period runs from the date of death rather than the date of the underlying collision. Because missing the deadline almost always ends a claim, the date should be confirmed early.

The no-fault system adds a separate 18-month mark that is often described as a second deadline but is not one. Under K.S.A. 40-3113a(c), an injured person who has not sued the at-fault party within 18 months of the accident assigns to the PIP insurer the cause of action only "for the purpose and to the extent of recovery of damages which are duplicative of personal injury protection benefits." The remainder of the claim, including pain and suffering and economic losses PIP did not pay, stays with the injured person until the two-year bar in K.S.A. 60-513. Passing 18 months narrows what is left to recover; it does not end the right to sue.

How shared fault works: modified comparative negligence

Kansas follows modified comparative fault under K.S.A. 60-258a. An injured party can still recover even if partly at fault, but only if that party's negligence is less than the combined fault of everyone else. In practice this is the 50 percent bar: if you are found 50 percent or more responsible, you recover nothing.

When recovery is allowed, the award is reduced by your share. If a jury values the damages at $1,000,000 and assigns you 25 percent of the fault, the recovery is $750,000. Because trucking companies and their insurers often try to shift blame onto the injured driver to push them over the 50 percent line, the fault allocation is usually a central fight in a truck case.

No-fault insurance and the tort threshold

Kansas is a no-fault state under the Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act. Every standard auto policy includes personal injury protection (PIP), which pays your own medical bills, a portion of lost wages, and certain other costs after a crash regardless of who was at fault.

To step outside no-fault and sue the at-fault party for pain and suffering and other non-economic harm, you must meet a tort threshold in K.S.A. 40-3117. The threshold is satisfied when the injury requires medical treatment with a reasonable value of $2,000 or more, or when the injury involves permanent disfigurement, a fracture to a weight-bearing bone, a compound, comminuted, displaced or compressed fracture, loss of a body member, permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, permanent loss of a bodily function, or death. The serious injuries typical of a heavy-truck collision almost always clear this threshold, but it must be met before non-economic damages are recoverable.

Damage caps

Kansas does not cap compensatory damages in a personal-injury case. The Kansas Supreme Court struck down the longstanding statutory cap on noneconomic damages in 2019 (Hilburn v. Enerpipe Ltd.), so pain-and-suffering and other noneconomic awards are no longer limited by that statute. Separate rules can still apply to punitive damages, which require a higher showing and are addressed under their own provisions.

Fatal crashes are the exception, and it is an important one in truck litigation. Hilburn struck K.S.A. 60-19a02, the personal-injury noneconomic cap. A different section, K.S.A. 60-1903(a), remains in force and provides that damages in a wrongful-death action, other than pecuniary loss sustained by an heir at law, cannot exceed $250,000 in the aggregate. Subsection (b) applies that ceiling after any reduction for comparative fault under K.S.A. 60-258a, and the jury is not instructed about the limit.

State auto-insurance context

Kansas drivers must carry minimum liability coverage of 25/50/25 (in thousands: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, $25,000 for property damage), plus PIP and uninsured-motorist coverage, per the Kansas Department of Insurance. Those state minimums are modest. Commercial trucks operating in interstate commerce are instead governed primarily by the much higher federal financial-responsibility rules described below.

Federal trucking rules: the FMCSA layer

Commercial trucks are regulated by the FMCSA under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules are the same nationwide, and a violation is often powerful evidence of negligence. The core areas include:

• Hours of service. Under 49 CFR Part 395, a property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not 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. Fatigue and falsified logs are recurring issues in truck crashes.
• Electronic logging devices (ELDs). Most drivers must record their hours with an ELD that meets Part 395, replacing paper logs and creating a digital record of driving time.
• Driver qualification and CDL. Drivers must hold a valid commercial driver's license and meet medical and qualification standards under the federal rules.
• Drug and alcohol testing. Carriers must run pre-employment, random, post-accident, and reasonable-suspicion testing programs.
• Vehicle maintenance and inspection. Trucks must be systematically inspected, repaired, and maintained, with records kept, under the federal maintenance rules.

Who can be held liable

A truck case routinely involves more potential defendants than an ordinary car crash, and many of them are companies:

• the driver, for negligent driving;
• the motor carrier (the trucking company), often vicariously responsible for its driver and directly liable for negligent hiring, training, supervision, or retention;
• a broker or shipper in some circumstances;
• a cargo loader, when improperly loaded or unsecured freight contributes to a crash;
• a parts or equipment manufacturer, if a defective component such as brakes or tires played a role.

Identifying every responsible party matters because, under Kansas comparative fault, fault is allocated among all of them. How much each one pays matters just as much: K.S.A. 60-258a(d) makes each party liable only for the portion of the total award that its own causal negligence bears to the causal negligence of all parties against whom recovery is permitted. Kansas therefore has no joint and several liability in a comparative-fault case, so naming a solvent motor carrier does not make it answerable for another defendant's share, and proving fault against each party in its own right is what determines the recovery.

Federal minimum insurance

Federal law requires far more coverage from interstate trucks than Kansas requires from cars. Under 49 CFR 387.9, a for-hire motor carrier transporting general (non-hazardous) freight in interstate commerce must maintain at least $750,000 in liability coverage. Carriers hauling certain hazardous materials must carry substantially higher limits. This federal floor is one reason truck claims differ sharply from car claims.

Why preserving evidence early matters

Much of the best evidence in a truck case is electronic and can be lost. ELD and logbook data, the truck's engine control module or "black box" data, dashcam footage, and maintenance and inspection records can be overwritten or routinely discarded on a short cycle. Because of that, a written preservation (spoliation) letter sent to the carrier early can be important to keep that evidence from disappearing. The police crash report, photographs of the scene and vehicles, and your own medical records should also be preserved.

How injury cases are typically handled

Most personal-injury attorneys evaluate truck cases on a contingency-fee basis and offer a free initial consultation, meaning fees are generally a percentage of any recovery rather than an upfront charge. No lawyer can promise a particular outcome or amount, and every case turns on its own facts and evidence. Because Kansas deadlines are strict and trucking evidence can disappear quickly, it is generally wise to evaluate options well before the two-year limit.