7 Mistakes to Avoid After a Commercial Truck Accident
7 Mistakes to Avoid After a Commercial Truck Accident
What you do in the hours and days after a truck accident can shape your claim as much as the crash itself. Trucking companies carry commercial insurance policies built specifically to limit payouts, and many send their own investigators to the scene within hours of a serious crash. Here are the mistakes we see cost victims the most.
1. Skipping or delaying medical care
Adrenaline masks pain. Injuries like whiplash, concussions, and internal bleeding often don’t show clear symptoms for hours or days. Beyond your health, a gap between the crash and your first medical visit gives an insurance adjuster an opening to argue your injury happened somewhere else.
2. Not documenting the scene
Photos of vehicle positions, skid marks, road and weather conditions, and visible injuries matter because a scene changes fast — vehicles get towed, debris gets cleared, and construction signage gets moved. If you’re able to safely do so, document before you leave.
3. Giving a recorded statement to the trucking company’s insurer
An adjuster who calls quickly and sounds friendly is still working for the company that insures the truck, not for you. Recorded statements are frequently used later to lock in details that get twisted, or to find something — even an offhand “I’m fine” — that can be used to minimize your claim.
4. Accepting a fast settlement offer
Early settlement offers are almost always lower than what a case is actually worth, particularly before the full scope of an injury is known. Once you sign a release, you typically can’t go back for more money if your condition turns out worse than it seemed at first.
5. Waiting to request the truck’s black box and driver logs
Most commercial trucks carry an event data recorder that logs speed, braking, and engine data around the time of a crash, along with electronic logging device (ELD) records of the driver’s hours. Carriers aren’t required to preserve this data indefinitely, and it’s often overwritten during normal operations. Requesting it — formally, in writing — needs to happen early.
6. Missing Texas’s filing deadline
Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003, you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury or wrongful death claim. Courts read exceptions to that deadline narrowly, so treat two years as a hard line, not a guideline — and remember that the evidence you need often disappears well before the deadline does.
7. Not accounting for Texas’s fault-sharing rule
Texas follows a modified comparative fault system: under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, you’re barred from recovering anything if you’re found more than 50% responsible for the crash, and your recovery is reduced by your own percentage of fault if you’re at 50% or below. Insurance companies know this rule and will look for ways to shift blame onto you specifically to reduce what they owe — which is exactly why early documentation and legal representation matter.
Get help before you make one of these mistakes
Every one of these mistakes is avoidable with the right guidance early on. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a commercial truck accident in the Austin area, call the Traub Law Office at (512) 246-9191 or contact us online for a free consultation before you talk to the trucking company’s insurer.
About Andrew Traub
