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

A truck accident in Texas combines two bodies of law: the state's own injury rules (the filing deadline and the fault rule that decides whether and how much you can recover) and a thick layer of federal trucking regulation that governs how commercial carriers and their drivers must operate. Because a tractor-trailer is a commercial vehicle, federal safety rules often supply the evidence of who was negligent, and the parties on the other side are usually companies, not just an individual driver.

This page explains the Texas deadlines and liability rules that apply after a crash with a semi, box truck, or other commercial vehicle, then the uniform federal rules that shape every interstate trucking case. It is general legal information, not legal advice.

What is the deadline to sue after a Texas truck accident?

Texas sets a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury, including injuries from a truck crash, under Section 16.003(a) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. A claimant must bring suit no later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, which for a collision is generally the date of the crash.

Wrongful-death claims arising from a fatal crash fall under the same two-year period. Section 16.003(b) provides that an action for injury resulting in death accrues on the death of the injured person, so the clock runs from the date of death. The suit is brought by the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the deceased.

Two years is shorter than many people expect, and trucking evidence (discussed below) can disappear within weeks. Treat the deadline as a hard wall and act well before it expires. Limited exceptions, such as tolling for an injured minor or a person of unsound mind, are narrow and should not be assumed.

Texas's fault rule: proportionate responsibility and the 51% bar

Texas follows proportionate responsibility under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. It is a modified comparative system with a 51% bar. Section 33.001 provides that a claimant may not recover damages if the claimant's percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent.

In practice that means if you are found 50% or less responsible for the crash, you can still recover, but your damages are reduced in proportion to your share of fault. A plaintiff who is 20% at fault recovers 80% of the damages. A plaintiff found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing. Because the defense in a trucking case often tries to shift blame onto the injured driver to push them past the 50% line, the apportionment of fault is frequently the central battle in the case.

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

Texas is an at-fault (tort) state, not a no-fault state. There is no mandatory personal injury protection system and no statutory injury threshold you must clear before suing the at-fault party. After a truck crash you can pursue a claim directly against the at-fault driver and the motor carrier for your medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and other losses.

Drivers can buy optional first-party coverages such as personal injury protection (PIP) or medical payments coverage, and PIP must be offered and rejected in writing, but these are optional add-ons that pay your own bills regardless of fault. They do not change the core rule that liability follows fault. This is a meaningful contrast with true no-fault states, where an injury must meet a serious-injury or monetary threshold before a lawsuit for pain and suffering is allowed.

Damage caps in Texas

Texas does not cap ordinary compensatory damages in a standard truck-collision case. Economic damages (medical bills and lost earnings) and noneconomic damages (pain and suffering, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment) are not subject to a statutory ceiling in a routine motor-vehicle injury claim.

The main statutory cap that can apply is on exemplary damages, the punitive damages a jury may award to punish especially reckless conduct. Under Section 41.008, exemplary damages generally may not exceed the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000. That cap is separate from, and does not reduce, your compensatory recovery, and certain serious felony conduct is exempt from it.

Minimum insurance in Texas

Texas requires drivers to carry at least 30/60/25 in liability coverage: $30,000 for bodily injury per person, $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage, per the Texas Department of Insurance. These are the floors for ordinary passenger vehicles. Commercial trucks operating in interstate commerce are subject to far higher federal requirements, covered next.

Federal FMCSA rules that govern trucking

Interstate commercial trucking is regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules apply nationwide and frequently supply the proof of negligence in a truck case:

• Hours of service (49 CFR Part 395): A property-carrying driver may drive a maximum of 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 may not drive after 60 hours on duty in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days.
• Electronic logging devices (ELDs): Most drivers must record their hours with an ELD that automatically captures driving time, making falsified-logbook fatigue easier to prove.
• Driver qualification and CDL: Drivers must hold a valid commercial driver's license and meet the medical and qualification standards in the driver-qualification rules.
• Drug and alcohol testing (49 CFR Part 382): Carriers must conduct pre-employment, random, post-accident, and reasonable-suspicion testing and check the federal Clearinghouse.
• Vehicle maintenance and inspection (49 CFR Part 396): Carriers must systematically inspect, repair, and maintain their vehicles and keep records.

A logbook showing too many hours behind the wheel, a skipped inspection, or a missed drug test can become central evidence that the driver or carrier was negligent.

Texas adds a gate on when that evidence reaches the jury. If a defendant obtains a bifurcated trial under Section 72.052 (described below), Section 72.053(b) makes evidence of a failure to comply with a regulation or standard admissible in the first phase only if it tends to prove that the noncompliance proximately caused the injury or death, and the regulation is specific and governs, or is an element of a duty of care applicable to, the defendant, its employee, or its property or equipment. Section 72.053(c) preserves that evidence for the exemplary-damages phase. Outside a bifurcated trial the ordinary rules of evidence apply.

Who can be held liable after a truck accident

A truck crash routinely produces several defendants, often corporate, which is a key difference from a typical car accident. Depending on the facts, the responsible parties can include the truck driver; the motor carrier (vicariously for the driver's on-the-job conduct, and in some cases directly for its own failures such as negligent hiring, training, supervision, retention, or maintenance); a freight broker or shipper; the company that loaded or secured the cargo; and the manufacturer of a defective part such as a brake or tire.

Direct-negligence theories against the carrier are not freely available in Texas the way they are in many states. Chapter 72, Subchapter B, described in the next section, lets a carrier take most of them off the table in the first phase of trial by stipulating that the driver was its employee acting within the scope of employment.

Identifying every potential defendant matters because each may carry separate insurance, and because a carrier's own safety failures (pushing drivers past their hours, ignoring maintenance) can be independent grounds for liability beyond the driver's mistake.

Texas's trucking statute: bifurcation and the respondeat superior stipulation

Texas enacted a statute written specifically for commercial-motor-vehicle collision suits: Chapter 72, Subchapter B of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, added by H.B. 19 in 2021 (effective September 1, 2021) and amended by H.B. 2190 in 2023. It changes how a truck case is tried, and it is the rule most likely to surprise someone comparing Texas to another state.

A defendant can force a two-phase trial. Under Section 72.052(a) the court must bifurcate on a defendant's motion. The motion is due on or before the later of the 120th day after that defendant files its original answer, or the 30th day after a claimant files a pleading adding a claim against it. The first phase decides liability and the amount of compensatory damages; the second phase decides liability for and the amount of exemplary damages.

The employer can limit itself to respondeat superior. Section 72.054(a) provides that an employer defendant's liability for ordinary negligence is based only on respondeat superior if it stipulates, within the Section 72.052 deadline, that the driver was its employee acting in the course and scope of employment. When it does and the trial is bifurcated, Section 72.054(b) bars the claimant from presenting evidence in the first phase on ordinary-negligence claims against the employer that depend on the employee's negligence, such as negligent entrustment.

What survives the stipulation. The bar is not total, and the exceptions matter:

• Section 72.054(c) lets the parties present specified first-phase evidence about carriers regulated under federal motor carrier safety law or Chapter 644 of the Transportation Code, including the driver's commercial license status and disqualifications, out-of-service orders, medical certification, hours-of-service violations, texting and phone violations, the employment application, and a refused or failed substance test, along with the employer's compliance with substance-testing, hiring-investigation, out-of-service, and hours-of-service rules. Section 72.054(d) admits that evidence only to prove ordinary negligent entrustment.
• Section 72.054(f) preserves an ordinary-negligence claim that does not require employee negligence as a prerequisite, such as negligent maintenance, in the first phase, and preserves exemplary-damages claims for the second phase.
• Section 72.052(e) allows a first-phase finding that the driver was negligent to support proceeding against the employer in the second phase on claims such as negligent entrustment.

The practical effect is that a Texas claimant often tries the first phase against the carrier on a vicarious-liability theory rather than on the carrier's own hiring and supervision record, and puts that record in front of the jury only if the case reaches the exemplary-damages phase or falls within one of the exceptions above.

Federal minimum insurance for trucks

Under 49 CFR 387.9, an interstate for-hire motor carrier hauling general (nonhazardous) freight in a vehicle of 10,001 pounds or more must maintain at least $750,000 in public-liability coverage. Carriers hauling certain hazardous materials must carry far more, up to $5,000,000. These federal minimums dwarf typical car-insurance limits and are one reason serious truck claims are valued differently from ordinary car-crash claims.

Preserving evidence after a truck crash

Trucking evidence is perishable. A truck's engine control module (its onboard "black box") can record speed, braking, and throttle data; the driver's ELD and logbooks record hours; and the carrier's maintenance and inspection records can show neglect. Much of this data can be overwritten or lawfully discarded on a routine retention schedule within weeks. A prompt written preservation (spoliation) letter to the carrier, asking it to retain the ECM data, ELD records, dispatch records, and maintenance files, helps keep that evidence intact.

Also preserve the basics on your side: the police crash report, photographs of the vehicles and scene, the names of witnesses, and complete medical records documenting your injuries.

How to evaluate a Texas truck-accident claim

Most personal-injury attorneys handle truck cases on a contingency-fee basis (the fee is a percentage of any recovery) and offer a free initial consultation, so an early conversation usually costs nothing. No lawyer can promise a particular outcome or dollar amount; the value of any claim depends on the facts, the injuries, the available insurance, and the apportionment of fault.

The practical priorities after a Texas truck crash are to get medical care and document your injuries, report the crash and obtain the police report, notify the insurers, preserve evidence quickly, and keep the two-year deadline firmly in view.