Hit by aWork Truck?

Work Truck Accident Cases

Work trucks carry gravel, asphalt, wet concrete, and heavy machinery on the same roads as passenger cars. In a work truck accident, the people in the car absorb most of the force, and the load can become a second hazard when it spills, shifts, or comes loose.

A truck rated or loaded at 26,001 pounds or more needs a driver with a commercial license, and so does a truck pulling a trailer over 10,000 pounds in a combination of that weight. The rule applies whether the truck crosses state lines or stays in Kentucky.

Those drivers fall under federal drug and alcohol testing. The employer must test the driver after a fatal accident, and after an injury treated away from the scene or a tow-away when the driver is cited.

A property-carrying driver may drive 11 hours within a 14-hour window after 10 hours off duty. A driver who mainly hauls construction materials and equipment can start a new 7- or 8-day period after 24 hours off, where other drivers need 34.

A ready-mixed concrete driver can count time waiting at a job site toward the 30-minute break if the driver does no other work. A local driver who stays within 150 air miles and is released within 14 hours keeps no hours log, but the company keeps time records for six months.

Kentucky applies these rules to trucks that never leave the state. A truck of 26,000 pounds or less that stays in Kentucky is exempt from the federal medical and hours rules, unless it carries placarded hazardous materials.

A bulldozer or other machine of 10,000 pounds or more needs at least four tiedowns, with its attachments lowered and secured. In Kentucky, a load that can shift or spill has to be covered for any trip over one mile.

A motor carrier has to inspect, repair, and maintain every truck it controls, and keep those records for one year. A driver who finds a defect has to report it in writing at the end of the day, and the carrier has to fix any defect likely to affect safety before the truck runs again.

Responsibility can reach past the driver. The company that runs the truck answers for its own hiring, maintenance, and safety practices, and a contractor that hired the truck, the crew that loaded it, and a maintenance vendor can be part of a case when the facts point to them.

In Kentucky, a lawsuit over a motor vehicle accident must be filed within two years after the injury, the death, or the last no-fault payment, whichever is later. Time records, inspection reports, and test results can be gone long before then, so a preservation letter goes to the truck’s owner, its operator, and their insurers as early as possible.