Texas truck accident laws: deadlines, fault, damages and the commercial vehicle trial rules

Truck Accident Lawyers SATX is the website of LAWBOSS – Uvalle Law Firm, PLLC. This page sets out the Texas statutes that shape a claim after a crash with a commercial truck, section by section, as we read them on the Texas Legislature’s statutes site in October 2026. The federal safety rules that trucking companies must follow are on our trucking accident lawyer San Antonio page.

Deadlines

Deadline	What the statute says	Section
Personal injury suit	Not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues	Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003(a)
Suit for a death	Two years; the cause of action accrues on the death of the injured person	16.003(b)
Injured child	The time a person is under 18 is not counted in the limitations period	16.001
Claim against a government unit	Written notice within six months after the incident, describing the injury, the time and place and the incident; a city charter may set its own period	101.101
Responsible third party designation	A defendant’s motion is due on or before the 60th day before trial	33.004(a)

These are the filing deadlines. In a truck case, the evidence deadlines come first: federal rules let a carrier discard driver inspection reports after three months and logs after six months. Our truck accident lawyer San Antonio page explains the preservation letter that stops that clock.

Fault: proportionate responsibility

Texas divides fault by percentage under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code.

• 33.001: a claimant may not recover damages if his or her percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent.
• 33.003: the jury assigns a percentage, in whole numbers, to each claimant, each defendant, each settling person and each designated responsible third party.
• 33.004: a defendant can ask the court to designate a responsible third party, a person not sued who the defendant says caused or contributed to the harm. A designation does not by itself make that person liable.
• 33.012: the claimant’s damages are reduced by his or her own percentage, and further by the amounts of any settlements.
• 33.013: each defendant pays its own percentage, but a defendant found more than 50 percent responsible is jointly and severally liable for all the damages recoverable.

In a truck case this matters in two ways. Insurers often argue that the car driver was partly at fault, because every percentage point reduces what they pay and anything over 50 percent ends the claim. And when the carrier, the broker and a repair shop are all defendants, whether one of them is over 50 percent decides who can be made to pay the whole judgment.

Damages

Compensatory damages cover losses: medical expenses, lost earnings and earning capacity, physical pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement and property damage. Section 41.008(a) requires the jury to find economic damages separately from the other compensatory damages.

Exemplary damages are different. Under section 41.003, they may be awarded only if the claimant proves by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from fraud, malice or gross negligence, and only if the jury is unanimous on both liability and amount. Section 41.008(b) limits them to the greater of two times the economic damages plus the noneconomic damages found by the jury up to 750,000 dollars, or 200,000 dollars, with exceptions for harm caused by certain felonies listed in 41.008(c).

Commercial vehicle trials: Chapter 72, Subchapter B

House Bill 19, passed in 2021 and amended in 2023, added rules that apply only to suits for injury or death caused in a collision with a commercial motor vehicle. Section 72.051 defines a commercial motor vehicle as a motor vehicle used for commercial purposes in interstate or intrastate commerce to transport property or passengers, deliver goods or provide services, but not one being used for personal, family or household purposes at the time.

A trial in two phases

Under section 72.052, on a defendant’s motion the court must split the trial. The motion is due by the later of 120 days after that defendant’s original answer or 30 days after a new claim is filed against it. The first phase decides liability for, and the amount of, compensatory damages. The second phase decides exemplary damages. A finding in the first phase that the employee driver was negligent lets the claimant go on in the second phase with claims against the employer, such as negligent entrustment, that depend on that finding.

Evidence of broken rules

Under section 72.053, evidence that a defendant failed to comply with a statute, regulation, rule or order is admissible in the first phase only if it tends to prove the failure was a proximate cause of the injury or death, and the rule is specific and governs the defendant, its employee or its equipment. Other violations can still be offered on exemplary damages in the second phase.

The employer’s stipulation

Under section 72.054, if the employer stipulates in time that the driver was its employee acting within the scope of employment, its liability for the driver’s ordinary negligence rests on respondeat superior. In a split trial, evidence on negligent entrustment in the first phase is then limited to a list in the statute, which includes whether the driver was licensed, disqualified or under an out-of-service order, medically certified, driving in violation of the federal or Texas hours rules, texting or using a hand-held phone, and, for a driver in the first year with the employer, whether the employer took an application and made the background inquiries the federal rules require. Claims that do not depend on the driver’s negligence, such as negligent maintenance, are not limited by this section.

Photographs and video

Under section 72.055, a court may not require opinion testimony from an engineer or other professional witness, beyond what is needed to authenticate it, to admit a photograph or video of a vehicle or object involved in the collision, and a properly authenticated photograph or video is presumed admissible even if it tends to support or refute an assertion about the severity of damage or injury. That makes your own photographs of the vehicles at the scene worth keeping.

Claims against government bodies

The Texas Tort Claims Act, Chapter 101, makes a governmental unit liable for injury and death caused by an employee’s negligence in the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle, and for injury and death caused by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property, in the circumstances section 101.021 sets out. Section 101.023 caps the damages: 250,000 dollars per person and 500,000 dollars per occurrence for the state and for municipalities, and 100,000 dollars per person and 300,000 dollars per occurrence for other units of local government. Notice is due within six months under section 101.101, unless the unit had actual notice of the injury or death.

Insurance law

• Minimum auto liability: 30,000 dollars per person and 60,000 dollars per collision for bodily injury, and 25,000 dollars for property damage (Transportation Code 601.072). Commercial carriers have their own, higher federal and state minimums.
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage: an insurer may not issue an auto liability policy in Texas without it unless the named insured rejects it in writing (Insurance Code 1952.101).
• Personal injury protection: the same rule applies to PIP (1952.152). PIP pays reasonable medical and other listed expenses arising from an accident and incurred within three years (1952.151).

Duties at the scene and the crash report

Under Transportation Code section 550.023, a driver involved in a collision that injures or kills someone or damages an attended vehicle must give his or her name and address, the vehicle’s registration number and the name of the liability insurer, show a driver’s license if asked, and give reasonable assistance to anyone injured, including arranging transport to medical care. Under section 550.062, the investigating officer must make a written report of a collision with injury, death or apparent property damage of 1,000 dollars or more, and file it electronically with TxDOT within 10 days. Section 550.065 lists who may obtain it, including the people involved and their authorized representatives.

Texas rules for trucking companies

Transportation Code section 644.051 directs the Department of Public Safety to adopt rules for the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles, consistent with federal regulations, and allows it to adopt the federal rules by reference. Section 644.052 says a rule adopted under the chapter applies uniformly throughout the state. The adopting rule, 37 Texas Administrative Code 4.11, incorporates most of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for intrastate vehicles over 26,000 pounds and others, and 37 Texas Administrative Code 4.12 sets intrastate hours of service. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles sets minimum insurance for intrastate carriers in 43 Texas Administrative Code 218.16.

When a truck crash is fatal

If someone was killed, the Texas Wrongful Death Act gives the claim to the surviving spouse, children and parents of the deceased, any of whom may bring it for the benefit of all (Civil Practice and Remedies Code 71.004). If none of them has sued within three calendar months after the death, the executor or administrator must bring it unless all of them ask that it not be brought. A separate survival claim for the injured person’s own losses passes to the estate and heirs under section 71.021. The two-year limit runs from the date of death (16.003(b)).

Where to read more

• Truck accident attorney San Antonio: how these statutes apply to each party
• Trucking accident lawyer San Antonio: the federal safety rules part by part
• After a truck accident: what to do in the first days
• Split trials after a commercial truck crash: a longer look at Chapter 72

If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney’s fee and no case costs; the written fee agreement sets the percentage and how advanced costs are handled when there is a recovery.

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