Long Island Truck
Accident Lawyer

The federal records

Why a truck case is not a car case

A crash between two private cars produces one driver, one policy and one police report. A crash with a commercial truck produces a motor carrier that federal law required to create and keep records about the driver, the vehicle and the trip before anyone was hurt. The case is built by obtaining those records before the carrier may discard them.

New York adopts the federal rules for carriers operating in the State, intrastate included (17 NYCRR 820.1(a), 820.6). A violation is not negligence per se. The Court of Appeals draws "a distinction between State statutes on the one hand, and local ordinances or administrative rules and regulations on the other": violation of a State statute that imposes a specific duty "constitutes negligence per se," while treating a violation of an administrative rule or regulation the same way would "substantially recast" the common law, so it is evidence of negligence for the jury (Elliott v. City of New York, 95 N.Y.2d 730 (2001)). The records are the proof.

The driver qualification file (49 CFR 391.51)

The carrier "shall maintain a driver qualification file for each driver it employs" (49 CFR 391.51(a)), kept "for as long as a driver is employed by that motor carrier and for three years thereafter" (49 CFR 391.51(c)). It shows what the carrier knew before the crash: the driving record from each licensing State, the road test, the annual review and the medical certificate (49 CFR 391.51(b)).

Hours of service and the electronic logging device (49 CFR 395.3, 395.8)

A property-carrying driver may drive 11 hours within a 14-hour window that opens after 10 consecutive hours off duty, and not past 8 hours without a 30-minute break (49 CFR 395.3(a)). "No motor carrier shall permit or require any driver used by it to drive" beyond those limits. No later than December 18, 2017 the carrier "must install and require each of its drivers to use an ELD" (49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)(i)), with exceptions for a driver who keeps a record of duty status on no more than 8 days in any 30-day period and for a vehicle manufactured before model year 2000, who may keep paper records (49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)(ii)). Records of duty status are kept "not less than 6 months from the date of receipt" (49 CFR 395.8(k)(1)). A local truck may run under the short-haul exception instead: a driver who stays within 150 air miles of the normal work reporting location and returns there within 14 hours keeps no log, and the carrier instead keeps time records for 6 months (49 CFR 395.1(e)(1)). Six months is the floor; a carrier under no duty to preserve may lawfully purge on day 181.

Inspection, repair and maintenance (49 CFR 396.3, 396.11, 396.17)

Every carrier "must systematically inspect, repair, and maintain" the vehicles it controls (49 CFR 396.3(a)); its maintenance record is retained "for a period of 1 year and for 6 months after the motor vehicle leaves the motor carrier's control" (49 CFR 396.3(c)). The driver's end-of-day report lists defects in brakes, steering, lights, tires and coupling devices; a listed defect must be repaired and certified before the vehicle runs again; the report is kept three months (49 CFR 396.11(a)). The annual inspection report (49 CFR 396.17(c)) is kept fourteen months (49 CFR 396.21(b)(1)).

Drug and alcohol testing after the crash (49 CFR 382.303)

After a crash the employer "shall test for alcohol" and for controlled substances each surviving driver if someone died, or if the driver is cited and someone was treated away from the scene or a vehicle was towed (49 CFR 382.303(a), (b)). A test not done within two hours (alcohol) or 32 hours (controlled substances) requires "a record stating the reasons the test was not promptly administered" (49 CFR 382.303(d)). Positives and refusals are kept five years, negatives one year (49 CFR 382.401).

The accident register (49 CFR 390.15)

Carriers "must maintain an accident register for 3 years after the date of each accident," with "copies of all accident reports required by State or other governmental entities or insurers" (49 CFR 390.15(b)); an accident is a fatality, an injury treated away from the scene, or a tow for disabling damage (49 CFR 390.5).

Cargo securement (49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I)

Cargo must be secured to prevent it "leaking, spilling, blowing or falling from the motor vehicle" and from shifting enough to affect "the vehicle's stability or maneuverability" (49 CFR 393.100(b), (c)); the tiedowns' aggregate working load limit must be "at least one-half times the weight of the article" (49 CFR 393.106(d)).

Minimum insurance (49 CFR 387.9)

A for-hire interstate carrier of nonhazardous property with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more must carry $750,000 in public liability coverage; a carrier of oil or listed hazardous materials, $1,000,000; a carrier of certain bulk hazardous substances, $5,000,000 (49 CFR 387.9, Table 1). The $750,000 row covers only for-hire carriers in interstate or foreign commerce; a private carrier hauling its own nonhazardous goods is not in it.

The engine control module

A diesel engine's electronic control module may retain data about a hard-braking event: speed, brake application, throttle and engine speed for a short window around it. What a given truck stores, and whether a later event overwrites it, depends on the make, the model year and the carrier's settings; no federal rule requires the carrier to keep it. The letter therefore asks that the tractor not be powered down, driven or repaired until a download is done with both sides present.

The New York rules

New York law that decides the case

Part EE of Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026 was signed and took effect May 26, 2026, and applies "to all actions and proceedings commenced on or after such date." Three rules below changed on that date. The date the action is commenced decides which version applies.

Comparative fault (CPLR 1411)

The claimant's culpable conduct "shall not bar recovery"; the damages are "diminished in the proportion which the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant or decedent bears to the culpable conduct which caused the damages" (CPLR 1411(a)). New subdivision (b): in a personal injury action "subject to article fifty-one of the insurance law," the claimant's culpable conduct "shall bar recovery" if it is greater than the culpable conduct of the defendant, or of all defendants combined (CPLR 1411(b)). In an action commenced on or after May 26, 2026, fifty percent at fault recovers half and fifty-one percent recovers nothing. Earlier actions are governed by subdivision (a) alone.

Fault first, then serious injury (Insurance Law § 5104(a))

"There shall be no right of recovery for non-economic loss, except in the case of a serious injury, or for basic economic loss" (Insurance Law § 5104(a)). Since May 26, 2026, no liability for non-economic loss "shall be fixed unless and until the trier of fact has determined the existence of a serious injury," and the trier of fact shall not decide serious injury "until the trier of fact has determined the party or parties at fault." Fault, then threshold, then damages.

Serious injury (Insurance Law § 5102(d))

"Serious injury" means a personal injury which results in "death; dismemberment; significant disfigurement; a fracture; loss of a fetus; permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system; permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; or significant limitation of use of a body function or system" (Insurance Law § 5102(d)). The ninth category, ninety of the first one hundred eighty days, is gone for actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026 and still applies to earlier actions. The appellate rulings are in our serious injury threshold decisions.

No-fault benefits (Insurance Law § 5102(a); 11 NYCRR 65-1.1)

"Basic economic loss" is up to fifty thousand dollars per person of medical expense, lost earnings within the statutory monthly limit and other necessary expenses, paid as first party benefits regardless of fault (Insurance Law § 5102(a), (b)). Written notice to the no-fault insurer is due "in no event more than 30 days after the date of the accident," medical bills within 45 days of the service and proof of work loss within 90 days (11 NYCRR 65-1.1).

Time limits (CPLR 214(5); EPTL 5-4.1)

"An action to recover damages for a personal injury" must be commenced within three years (CPLR 214(5)). The wrongful death action "must be commenced within two years after the decedent's death" (EPTL 5-4.1(1)), with "at least one year from the termination" of any criminal action against the same defendant (EPTL 5-4.1(2)). The municipal deadlines above are shorter.

Joint and several liability (CPLR 1601, 1602(6))

A defendant whose share "is found to be fifty percent or less" pays no more than its "equitable share" of non-economic loss (CPLR 1601(1)). The limit does "not apply to any person held liable by reason of his use, operation, or ownership of a motor vehicle" (CPLR 1602(6)), to respondeat superior liability (CPLR 1602(2)(iv)), or to "reckless disregard for the safety of others" (CPLR 1602(7)). Consequently, the driver, the carrier and the owner do not receive the limit; a defendant that only loaded the cargo or repaired the brakes may (damages decisions).

Our work

What we do in the first thirty days

The preservation letter goes out the day we are retained, to the carrier, its insurer, the owner of the tractor and trailer if different, and the driver. It demands the qualification file, six months of records of duty status, the inspection reports, the maintenance file, the post-accident test results or the record 49 CFR 382.303(d) requires when no test was done, the accident register, dispatch records, bills of lading, camera footage, and the tractor and trailer themselves, unrepaired and not powered down, for an engine module download with both sides present. I put the retention periods in the letter. A carrier that reads that it may discard the logs on day 181, and that the letter arrived on day 9, has been told what a court will later ask it.

The New York consequence is CPLR 3126. A party that "wilfully fails to disclose information which the court finds ought to have been disclosed" faces an order deeming the issues resolved against it, barring it from supporting or opposing designated claims, or "striking out pleadings" (CPLR 3126(1), (2), (3)). The letter turns a discarded log from housekeeping into a disclosure failure.

We pull the carrier's public record the same day. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Company Snapshot, searchable by USDOT number without charge, is "a concise electronic record of a company's identification, size, commodity information, and safety record," with its roadside out-of-service inspection summary and crash information.

The police accident report comes from the responding department (Nassau County Police, Suffolk County Police, a village department, or the State Police on the Expressway and the parkways), and the client's own report to the Department of Motor Vehicles gets filed. An investigator photographs the scene, the vehicles, the tire marks and the cargo before the truck is moved. Witnesses named in the report are interviewed while they remember which lane the truck was in.

The no-fault application is filed within the thirty days. The client's own insurer, or the insurer of the car the client was in, pays the first medical bills and lost wages, and a missed notice is excused only with written proof of "clear and reasonable justification" (11 NYCRR 65-1.1). We do not let a client lose that coverage over a form.

Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique.