If you’ve been hit by a company vehicle, what to do next looks a lot like any other crash in the first hour — call 911, get medical attention, document everything — but the stakes and the evidence trail diverge sharply from there. The employer behind the wheel often carries federally mandated insurance starting at $750,000 and sometimes reaching $5 million, and the company itself can be financially responsible for its driver’s mistakes. These cases also move fast. The company’s insurer begins investigating within hours, and critical electronic evidence can be legally destroyed in as little as six months.
Document the Scene the Right Way
Call 911 and get a police report started, even if nobody seems seriously hurt. That report becomes a timestamped neutral record and often captures the responding officer’s preliminary read on fault. You want it to exist before anyone’s memory shifts.
Then collect every piece of identifying information you can:
- Driver’s name, personal insurance, employer name, and a supervisor’s contact.
- License plate, company logos, and any U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) number on the vehicle.
- Photos and video from multiple angles — damage to all vehicles, skid marks, traffic signals, road conditions, the surrounding area.
- Names and phone numbers of witnesses.
The DOT number matters more than most people realize. Vehicles operating in interstate commerce with a gross weight above 10,001 pounds, carrying hazardous materials, or transporting passengers for compensation are generally required to display one.1Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Who Needs To Get a USDOT Number With that number, you or your attorney can pull the company’s safety profile, crash history, and inspection results from FMCSA’s public database.
Get Medical Attention the Same Day
See a medical professional that day, even if you feel fine. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, and internal bleeding routinely take hours or days to produce symptoms. If you wait a week to see a doctor, the company’s insurer will argue your injuries came from something else. The medical record you create on day one is what connects your injuries to the collision.
Preserve the Electronic Evidence Before It’s Gone
This is where company vehicle cases diverge sharply from ordinary car accidents, and where people lose winnable claims. Commercial vehicles generate electronic data that can prove exactly what happened, but federal regulations only require carriers to keep hours-of-service records for six months.2eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 – Hours of Service of Drivers Once that window closes, the company can legally destroy it.
A preservation letter, sometimes called a spoliation letter, is a formal written demand sent to the company and its insurer directing them to retain all evidence related to the crash. That includes electronic logging device records, GPS data, dashcam footage, the driver’s personnel file, hours-of-service logs, maintenance records, and dispatch communications. If the company destroys evidence after receiving this letter, courts can impose sanctions ranging from fines to instructing the jury to assume the missing evidence would have hurt the company’s case.
An attorney experienced in commercial vehicle cases will send this letter within days of the crash. If you wait months to hire a lawyer, the most valuable evidence may already be gone. This single step is probably the highest-leverage action you can take early in the process.
Why the Insurance Picture Is Bigger
When another private driver hits you, their auto policy might top out at $50,000 or $100,000. Company vehicles operate under a different floor. Federal law requires interstate motor carriers hauling non-hazardous freight in vehicles over 10,001 pounds to carry at least $750,000 in bodily injury and property damage coverage. Carriers transporting certain hazardous materials must carry $1,000,000, and those hauling explosives or radioactive materials must carry $5,000,000.3eCFR. 49 CFR 387.303 – Security for the Protection of the Public: Minimum Limits
Many large carriers voluntarily carry policies well above these minimums. That deeper insurance pool means serious injuries are more likely to be fully compensated. It also means the insurer has more at stake and will fight harder. Expect a well-funded defense from the start.
When the Company Itself Is Liable
Under a legal doctrine called respondeat superior, an employer is financially responsible for the harm caused by an employee who was doing their job at the time.4Legal Information Institute. Respondeat Superior You don’t need to prove the company itself did anything wrong. If the driver was acting within the scope of their employment when they caused the crash, the company pays. A delivery driver running a route qualifies. A sales rep driving between client meetings qualifies. The analysis gets murkier when the driver had detoured for personal reasons.
The main defense companies raise is the frolic and detour distinction. A detour is a minor departure from work duties, like grabbing coffee on the way to a delivery, and generally keeps the employer on the hook. A frolic is a major personal departure, like using the company truck to drive two hours to a concert on a day off, and typically lets the employer off.5Legal Information Institute. Frolic and Detour
What If the Driver Is an “Independent Contractor”?
Companies increasingly label drivers as independent contractors, and the distinction matters for your claim. The general rule is that a company is not vicariously liable for a true independent contractor’s actions.6Legal Information Institute. Independent Contractor But calling someone a contractor doesn’t make it true. Courts and the IRS look at the actual working relationship: whether the company controls how the work is done, whether the company controls the financial terms, and whether the overall relationship looks more like employment than an independent business.7Internal Revenue Service. Worker Classification 101: Employee or Independent Contractor A driver who uses a company-owned truck, follows company-set routes, wears a company uniform, and can’t refuse assignments is likely an employee regardless of what the contract says.
Even with a genuine contractor, the company may still be liable if it was negligent in selecting them — hiring one with a known history of unsafe driving, for example.6Legal Information Institute. Independent Contractor
Direct Claims Against the Company
Separate from vicarious liability, you can often argue the company itself was negligent. These claims survive even when a frolic-and-detour defense succeeds or the driver turns out to be a true contractor:
- Negligent hiring — putting an unsafe driver behind the wheel, when a background check would have revealed prior DUI convictions or a suspended license.
- Negligent retention — keeping a driver after learning they were dangerous, through speeding tickets, failed drug tests, or prior incidents.
- Negligent maintenance — skipping brake repairs, running bald tires, ignoring faulty lighting. Federal rules require carriers to systematically inspect, repair, and maintain every vehicle, with parts kept in safe operating condition at all times, plus a full inspection at least once every 12 months.8eCFR. 49 CFR 396.3 – Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance
- Negligent supervision — failing to monitor driver behavior, enforce safety policies, or correct known problems.
Direct negligence claims can also open the door to punitive damages when a company knowingly ignored safety violations, pressured drivers to skip rest breaks, or kept a dangerous driver on the road despite repeated warnings.
Evidence That Will Decide the Case
Electronic Logging Devices and Event Data Recorders
These are two different systems. An event data recorder, sometimes called a black box, captures a brief technical snapshot in the seconds around a crash — speed, brake application, steering input, seatbelt status. NHTSA notes that EDRs do not record hours-of-service data.9National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Event Data Recorder Electronic logging devices sync with the engine to automatically track driving hours and compliance with federal hours-of-service rules, showing whether a driver had been on the road too long when the crash happened. Carriers must retain ELD records for at least six months.2eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 – Hours of Service of Drivers
Hours-of-Service Violations
Federal rules cap property-carrying commercial drivers at 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour on-duty window, with a mandatory 30-minute break after eight cumulative hours behind the wheel.10Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Hours of Service When ELD data shows a driver exceeded these limits before a crash, it’s powerful evidence of both driver negligence and the company’s failure to enforce safety rules.
Post-Accident Drug and Alcohol Testing
Federal law requires the employer to drug- and alcohol-test a commercial driver after any crash involving a fatality, with no exceptions. When the crash causes injuries requiring medical transport or vehicle damage requiring a tow, testing is required if the driver receives a moving violation citation. Alcohol testing must happen within two hours; if not administered within eight hours, the employer must stop trying and document why. Drug testing must occur within 32 hours.11eCFR. 49 CFR 382.303 – Post-Accident Testing If the company skipped or delayed these tests, that failure itself becomes evidence of negligence or an attempt to conceal impairment.
Maintenance Records and the Crash Register
Carriers must keep detailed maintenance records for every vehicle, including inspection dates, repair histories, and scheduled maintenance logs, for at least one year, and for six months after the vehicle leaves the fleet.8eCFR. 49 CFR 396.3 – Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance Drivers must also complete daily post-trip inspection reports noting any defects affecting safe operation.12Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance for Motor Carriers of Passengers Part 396 Carriers must also maintain a crash register covering the previous three years, documenting the date, location, driver, and severity of every reportable accident.13FMCSA CSA. Accident Recordkeeping (Accident Register) (390.15) Gaps in these records, or records showing known problems that went unrepaired, support negligent maintenance claims.
What You Can Recover
Economic damages cover every measurable financial loss. Medical bills, from the emergency room through surgery, physical therapy, and future treatment, are typically the largest component. Lost wages count here, along with any reduction in your future earning capacity if the injuries permanently limit what you can do. Vehicle repair or replacement rounds out this category.
Non-economic damages compensate for harm that doesn’t come with a receipt — physical pain, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and the loss of ability to enjoy activities that mattered to you before. In serious injury cases these often exceed the economic losses.
Punitive damages are available only when the company’s conduct goes beyond ordinary negligence into reckless or intentional disregard for safety. A carrier that forces drivers to falsify logs, keeps a truck with failing brakes in service, or hires a driver without checking a disqualifying criminal record may face punitive liability. Standards vary by state, and many states cap the amount, but the threat of punitive exposure often motivates companies to settle serious claims more generously.
Fault Rules and Deadlines Vary by State
If the company argues you were partly at fault, your compensation may be reduced or eliminated depending on where you live. About a dozen states follow pure comparative fault, where damages are reduced by your percentage but never barred. Over 30 states use modified comparative fault, which works the same way up to a 50% or 51% threshold, beyond which you recover nothing. A handful of states still follow contributory negligence, which bars recovery entirely if you bear any fault at all. The rule in your state can swing a case by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Every state also sets a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit, and missing it means losing the right to sue permanently. Deadlines range from one year in a few states to as long as six, with most falling in the two-to-three-year range, and the clock typically starts on the date of the accident. Claims against government entities — if the company vehicle was government-owned — often require a formal notice of claim within 30 to 180 days, a much tighter timeline. If the injured person is a minor, the deadline usually doesn’t begin running until they reach the age of majority. Check the specific deadline that applies to your situation early.
When the Company’s Adjuster Calls
The company’s insurer will likely contact you within a day or two. The adjuster may sound sympathetic, but their job is to minimize what the company pays. Two early mistakes cost people more than almost anything else.
First, giving a recorded statement. You are not legally obligated to provide one to the at-fault party’s insurance company. Adjusters request them looking for anything that can reduce your claim — an offhand “I feel okay,” a vague description, an inconsistency to exploit later. Politely decline until you’ve spoken with an attorney.
Second, accepting an early settlement offer. The first offer almost always arrives before you know the full extent of your injuries. Once you sign a release, you cannot go back when the herniated disc shows up on an MRI three months later or physical therapy runs longer than expected. Let your treatment progress far enough to understand the real cost before entertaining numbers.
If the company vehicle was a large commercial truck, the carrier’s insurer has likely already dispatched an accident reconstruction team and begun building its defense. This is not a situation where you gain anything by waiting.