Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Updated January 2026.
A commercial truck crash is not a bigger car accident. The trucking company’s insurer, investigators, and defense counsel are on the road to the wreck within hours. Evidence (electronic logs, dashcam footage, driver files) can be overwritten or “lost” within days. If you were hurt by a semi, box truck, dump truck, or 18-wheeler in Phoenix, AZ, you need to know what to do now, what Arizona law actually says, and what federal regulations apply to the company that hit you.
This page walks through all of it. If you want a direct answer about your situation, call us for a free case review at (602) 345-1818.
The first 72 hours matter more in a truck case than in almost any other type of crash. Here is the short version.
A passenger car at 65 mph carries about 4,000 pounds of energy. A loaded tractor-trailer at the same speed carries 80,000 pounds, the federal weight limit for a fully loaded combination vehicle. That physics gap is why truck crashes produce catastrophic injuries and why the claims process is different in every meaningful way.
Truck cases also involve a layer of federal law that simply does not apply to passenger car wrecks. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates interstate trucking under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Those rules govern driver hours, equipment, inspections, drug testing, hiring practices, and minimum insurance. When a trucking company violates one of those rules and someone gets hurt, the violation often becomes the core of the liability case.
The FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System tracks large-truck and bus crashes nationwide. Looking at the most recent published full-year data for Arizona, large trucks have been involved in roughly 2,800 to 3,000 reported crashes statewide, with several hundred injuries and well over 100 fatalities annually in recent years. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, accounts for the majority of those crashes. The Arizona Department of Transportation has consistently identified the I-10 and Loop 101 corridors as among the highest-volume truck routes in the state.
The takeaway is not the number. It is that truck crashes in Maricopa County are common enough that the defense bar has a playbook, and you need someone who has read that playbook.
Some corridors produce a disproportionate share of commercial truck crashes in the Valley:
Where the crash happened matters. Different jurisdictions, different responding agencies, and sometimes different government entities maintain those roadways. That affects evidence, witnesses, and in some cases the statute of limitations (more on that below).
Federal rules are not background information. They are often the case.
When the trucking company violated a federal regulation and that violation caused the crash, Arizona courts can treat the violation as evidence of negligence.
Here is what we send preservation demands for within days of being hired:
A spoliation letter does two things. It forces the carrier to stop the routine destruction cycles on this data. And if the data later turns out to be “lost” anyway, it opens the door to an adverse inference at trial: the jury can be told to assume the missing evidence would have been unfavorable to the trucking company.
Under Arizona law, anyone whose negligence contributed to the crash can be a defendant. Truck cases almost always involve more than one defendant.
The doctrine of respondeat superior holds an employer liable for the negligent acts of an employee committed within the scope of employment. So when a company driver causes a crash on the job, the motor carrier itself is on the hook for the driver’s conduct. That is not optional in Arizona, it is black-letter agency law.
Potential defendants in a Phoenix truck case can include:
Identifying every defendant matters because each carries its own insurance. With federal coverage on the truck itself, plus often a separate policy for the motor carrier, plus excess and umbrella layers, the realistic compensation picture in a serious truck case can be very different from a typical car crash. Finding the full coverage stack is part of the job.
Because of the mass and force involved, injuries from truck crashes tend to be severe and long-lasting. Our team handles cases involving:
The medical and economic exposure on these injuries is one of the reasons federal coverage floors are higher for commercial trucks in the first place. It is also why settlement timelines on serious truck cases can run longer than typical car claims. Full damages cannot be evaluated until the medical picture stabilizes.
Arizona allows truck accident victims to recover both economic and non-economic damages, and in narrow circumstances, punitive damages. The value of a personal injury case depends on injury severity, treatment history, fault proof, available coverage, and how well the damages are documented.
Economic damages are the out-of-pocket and provable financial losses caused by the crash. They include:
Non-economic damages compensate harms that do not arrive with a receipt. They include:
Arizona does not cap non-economic damages in personal injury cases. The Arizona Constitution (Art. 2, § 31) prohibits the legislature from doing so.
Punitive damages are available only in rare cases. Under the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in Linthicum v. Nationwide Life Ins. Co., 150 Ariz. 326 (1986), and its progeny, a plaintiff must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with an “evil mind,” meaning conscious and deliberate disregard of a substantial risk of harm. Drunk driving by a commercial driver, falsified hours-of-service logs, or knowingly dispatching an unfit driver can support punitive claims.
Arizona follows Arizona’s pure comparative negligence rule, codified at A.R.S. § 12-2505. You do not lose your right to damages because you share some fault. Your recovery is reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault.
A concrete example. Suppose total damages are $500,000 and the jury finds you 20% at fault for the crash (maybe you were a few miles per hour over the limit, or briefly out of your lane). The recovery is reduced by 20%, leaving $400,000. Even if you were 80% at fault, you could still recover 20% under Arizona’s rule. Most states are stricter.
The defense will look for any reason to push fault onto you. That is why early evidence work, including the truck’s ELD and dashcam data, matters so much. Hard data often beats narrative.
To win a truck accident case in Arizona, you have to prove negligence. That requires four elements:
In commercial truck cases, federal regulations supply the duty of care. An hours-of-service violation, an ELD falsification, or a skipped inspection is direct evidence of breach. Pair that with telematics data showing speed and braking, plus medical records tying the injuries to the crash, and you have a case.
Key evidence sources include:
Recovering this evidence is not something an injured person should be doing from a hospital bed. That is the job of the legal team.
In Arizona, the Arizona statute of limitations for personal injury claims is 2 years from the date of the injury, under A.R.S. § 12-542. Miss the deadline and the right to sue is gone, regardless of how strong the case was.
There is an important wrinkle for crashes involving government vehicles or government-maintained roads. Under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, a claim against a public entity or public employee requires a written notice of claim filed within 180 days of the cause of action accruing. Miss the 180-day notice and the claim is barred even if you are still inside the 2-year window. This catches people. A crash on a city street with an alleged signaling defect, or a collision involving a municipal sanitation truck, can fall under this rule.
Earlier is better either way. Evidence is freshest in the first weeks, witnesses are easiest to find, and the federal preservation rules give you a real window to lock down ELD data.
Our team handles truck accident cases on a contingency fee basis. That means no attorney’s fees unless we recover. The percentage and the handling of case costs are spelled out in the written fee agreement before any work begins. The free case review is exactly that, free, and there is no obligation to hire us after the call.
As soon as you are medically stable. Ideally within days. The trucking company’s investigators are already at work, and key data sources like ELD records can be overwritten under 49 CFR § 395.8 within months. The earlier preservation demands go out, the more evidence survives.
Under 49 CFR § 387.9, interstate trucks over 10,001 pounds are required to carry liability coverage well above Arizona’s passenger car minimums. Different floors apply to general freight, oil transport, and hazardous materials. Many carriers also carry excess or umbrella coverage. The actual policy limits in any particular case have to be confirmed by pulling the declarations pages during the claim.
Yes. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state under A.R.S. § 12-2505. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you are not barred from recovery even if you were the majority at fault.
The motor carrier may still be liable. FMCSA regulations and Arizona case law often treat the driver of a placarded commercial truck as a statutory employee of the motor carrier whose authority appears on the truck, regardless of the underlying contract. Brokers, shippers, and lessors can also have independent liability. This is one of the issues that makes truck cases more complex than car cases.
It depends on the severity of injuries and whether liability is contested. Cases with serious injuries usually do not settle until the medical picture stabilizes, because the future-care numbers cannot be evaluated honestly until then. Many cases resolve within 12 to 24 months. Cases that require litigation can take longer.
Most truck accident claims resolve through settlement negotiations with the carrier’s insurer. Some require filing suit to apply pressure or to get full access to discovery. A smaller share actually go to trial. We prepare every case as if it could be tried, because that is how settlements get serious.
If you or a family member were hurt in a commercial truck crash in Phoenix, the most useful thing you can do today is get clear answers. What evidence needs to be preserved. What deadlines apply. What the realistic coverage picture looks like with the federal layers in play.
Free case review: (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7. No attorney’s fees unless we recover. Fee and cost terms are set out in the written agreement before any work begins.
Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
16202 N Cave Creek Rd Suite D, Phoenix, AZ 85032
(602) 345-1818
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
These related guides cover the main truck-accident issues that often overlap in Phoenix commercial vehicle cases.