Which records matter after a commercial truck crash?

A truck case is not a car case

If you are looking for a truck accident lawyer, you have probably already worked out that this is not a fender bender. You are right, and the reason is not the size of the truck.

A car crash may leave a police report, insurance files and whatever is on your phone. A commercial-truck crash can also involve records held by a motor carrier or vendor. When the carrier and operation are covered by federal safety rules, those rules define certain records and retention periods. Intrastate and state requirements can differ.

That trail is why these cases can sometimes be reconstructed in detail. It is also why records can be lost. Much of the information may sit on carrier or vendor systems, some federal retention periods are measured in months, and two especially useful sources, engine data and camera footage, have no general federal retention period.

Who is on the other side

After a serious crash, a larger fleet or insurer may send safety, claims or rapid-response personnel to gather information quickly. A small carrier or owner-operator may not have those teams at all. The response varies, but carrier-side photographs, measurements, downloads and reports can begin while the road is still closed.

That is ordinary business and insurance work, not proof that anyone did something wrong. It does mean the carrier or insurer may begin documenting the crash while an injured person is still receiving emergency care.

What a truck crash leaves behind, record by record

The table further up this page gives each of these with the federal rule and the citation beside it. Here is what each one actually is.

The driver’s hours. For drivers required to keep records of duty status, an ELD automatically records specified data at certain events and intervals, including time, location, engine hours and vehicle miles. The driver also records and certifies duty status. A covered carrier retains those duty-status records and the supporting documents required by 49 CFR 395.11 for six months from receipt.¹ The supporting documents may include qualifying bills of lading, dispatch records, expense receipts, electronic mobile communications or payroll records. The carrier also keeps a backup copy of required ELD records on a separate device for six months.² Together these records can help reconstruct the driver’s work and duty history; they do not decide a case.

The two tests. After a crash that meets the rule, the company has to try to test the driver for alcohol and for controlled substances. The alcohol attempt has a window of eight hours. The controlled substance attempt has thirty-two.³ Those are not shelf lives for a record. They are windows for attempting the tests, measured from the exact time of the crash.

The carrier’s accident register. A motor carrier covered by 49 CFR 390.15 must keep a register of crashes that meet the rule’s definition, including the date, location, driver’s name, injuries, deaths and certain hazardous-material releases. Each qualifying entry stays on the register for three years after the crash.⁴

The driver’s qualification file. It can include the employment application, initial motor-vehicle records, road-test records, annual driving-record inquiries and reviews, and medical certification documents. The rule does not give every item the same clock. The general rule keeps the file during employment and for three years afterward, but paragraph (d) permits specified annual driving-record and medical documents to be removed three years after they were executed.⁵ Those employment and execution dates cannot be calculated from the crash date alone.

The engine control module, the black box. Depending on the make and configuration, it may record road speed, engine speed, throttle position, brake use or data around a hard stop. That information can help reconstruct a crash. There is no general federal rule setting how long it must be kept. Continued operation may overwrite some data, and a download does not by itself guarantee that a copy will remain available to everyone involved.

The cameras. A fleet may use a road-facing camera, a driver-facing camera or both, sometimes through an outside vendor and sometimes alongside tracking data. Whether footage from your crash existed or was saved depends on the equipment and that company’s practices, which may not be public. There is no general federal retention period for this footage.

Everything that belongs to somebody else. The truck itself. The trailer and whatever was loaded in it. The gas station camera on the corner. The dash cam in the car behind you. None of that is on a federal schedule and none of it waits for anyone.

Three ways evidence can change or disappear early

The truck goes back to work, gets repaired, reloaded or sold. Tire condition, brake adjustment, damage patterns, the load and how it was secured may all be examined on the truck itself. Repairs and continued use can change that evidence. How quickly this happens depends on the vehicle, the damage and the company.

The engine data is read and not kept. The download happens, the module goes back in, and no copy exists for anybody else. Nothing in the federal rules says otherwise, which is the whole point of saying it out loud.

The testing windows pass. When the federal post-accident testing rule applies, the alcohol-testing attempt has an eight-hour window and the controlled-substance-testing attempt has a thirty-two-hour window. They close at different times, so the exact crash time matters.

Notice what none of those require. Nobody has to lie, hide a file or break a rule. This is simply what happens to a working truck and a working fleet while a family is still in a waiting room.

What a preservation letter is, and who sends it

It is a letter to the trucking company and its insurer that says stop deleting. Hold the truck as it is. Hold the engine data, the logs, the dispatch file, the camera footage. It names the things and it says do not touch them.

A person can send a written preservation request, but the recipients, wording, scope, proof of delivery, and follow-up matter. A lawyer can tailor it to the crash and pursue records that are not produced. This site does not create or send the notice for you.

What you can do today is find out what may be on a clock, so the first conversation you have with a lawyer starts with the actual records instead of a vague feeling that you should hurry.

What the insurer may ask you for early

An insurer may contact you early and may ask for a recorded statement or a signed authorization for medical records.

Ask for the adjuster’s name, the claim number, a direct line and the purpose of each request. Before postponing or responding, ask whether a policy deadline or cooperation duty applies and where the policy says so. If the request or timing is unclear, seek prompt advice from a licensed attorney. We wrote a separate page on what a recorded statement is and what it gets used for.

A release can resolve claims according to its exact terms, potentially including injuries that have not yet been diagnosed. Read the complete release before signing it, and seek prompt advice if its scope is unclear.

What a lawyer will want from you

Less than people expect. Bring what you have and leave the rest blank:

• The US DOT number painted on the door of the truck, or the company name off the trailer. That number is how anybody looks the company up in the government’s own free database.⁶
• The crash report number and the agency that wrote it.⁷
• Photographs from your phone, including the ones that look useless to you.
• The date, and the time as close as you can get it.
• Everywhere you have been treated so far.
• First names and phone numbers of anyone who stopped.

If you have almost none of that, say so. Gaps are normal and they do not stop a case check.

What happens when you contact us

Tell us what happened by phone, text or in writing. We keep the truck, carrier, timeline and records together so a licensed attorney can read the full picture. The evidence clock on this page is yours to use even if you never contact us.

Where you live is one factor in who can help. Depending on your state and what happened, another law firm may need to assist or handle the matter. We will name that firm and ask your permission before sharing anything.

What we will not do is tell you that you have a case, what it might be worth, or how long you have. Those three answers belong to a licensed attorney who has read your own facts. Anybody who hands them to you from a web page has not read anything.