A commercial truck loaded to 80,000 pounds at highway speed has roughly 20 times the kinetic energy of a passenger car. The injuries follow that math. Truck crashes on I-10, I-17, US-60, and the Loop 202 leave drivers and passengers with severe and often permanent damage.
The legal fight is also different. Trucking is heavily regulated by federal law (the FMCSA), which means the case is not just about who was at fault for the crash. It is also about hours-of-service logs, vehicle maintenance records, driver qualification files, drug and alcohol testing, and whether the trucking company itself created the conditions that caused the crash.
Valley Accident Law has 29 years of experience handling Arizona injury cases. Founder Charles Paglialunga handles every truck case personally.
Most commercial truck cases we see fall into these patterns:
Read more about commercial truck accidents on Arizona interstates.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sets rules that govern how trucks operate. The relevant ones for case-building:
A violation of any of these does not automatically prove liability, but it is often the strongest part of the case. We send preservation-of-evidence letters within days of being retained because trucking companies are not required to keep most of these records longer than 6 to 12 months.
Multiple parties can be liable in a commercial truck case:
That stacking of liable parties is part of why truck cases recover more than passenger-vehicle cases of similar injury severity. There are usually multiple insurance policies in play, and the policy limits are higher than in standard auto cases.
Damages in truck cases can be significant because the injuries usually are. Recoverable categories include past and future medical bills, lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, wrongful death damages where the victim did not survive, and punitive damages where the trucking company knowingly violated federal rules or where the driver was impaired.
Most Arizona truck accident claims must be filed within two years. If the truck was a government vehicle (a state, federal, or municipal vehicle), a notice of claim is required within 180 days.
Even with a two-year statute, you should not wait. The trucking company’s records have short retention windows, and the company often has a rapid-response team at the scene within hours of the crash, photographing, measuring, and interviewing witnesses. We need to do the same on your behalf, fast.
Charles handles every truck case personally. The first consultation is free, and we work on contingency. No fee unless we recover for you.
Call 1-602-584-8054 for a free consultation.
Federal regulations, multiple liable parties, larger insurance policies, more complex evidence (logs, ELD data, maintenance records), and shorter retention windows on the truck company’s records.
As soon as you can. Some trucking records can be lawfully destroyed in 6 to 12 months. We send preservation letters fast.
Does not matter for jurisdiction. The crash happened in Arizona, so Arizona courts and Arizona law apply.
Common opening position. We litigate it with the federal regulations, the records they were required to keep, and accident reconstruction.
Yes, in cases involving impaired driving, knowing rule violations, or extreme negligence. We evaluate punitive exposure on every case.