Houston 18-wheeler accident lawyer
Harris County has more crashes involving commercial vehicles than any other county in Texas. Port containers, refinery tankers and interstate freight share I-10, I-45, the 610 Loop and Beltway 8 with everyone else — and when a semi hits a car, the case is built from evidence the trucking company controls.
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Why Houston produces so many truck cases
Port Houston is the busiest port in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage, and the largest container port on the Gulf Coast. Almost everything that comes off a ship at Barbours Cut or Bayport, and much of what leaves the refineries and chemical plants along the Ship Channel, goes out on a truck. Add the interstate freight running I-10 coast to coast and I-45 to Dallas, and Houston’s freeways carry a volume of tractor-trailers few cities match.
The numbers follow. TxDOT counted 6,313 crashes involving a commercial motor vehicle in Harris County in 2024 — more than any other county in Texas, and roughly one in six of the statewide total. Forty-one of them were fatal.
Where the trucks are
If you drive in Houston, you already know the stretches. SH 225 and SH 146 to the container terminals. The East Loop of 610 and the Ship Channel crossing on Beltway 8. I-10 East past Channelview toward Baytown, and I-10 West on the Katy Freeway. I-45 south toward Galveston and north toward Dallas. US-290 and US-59 through the rest of the city. Truck crashes here are disproportionately freeway crashes: merges, lane changes into a blind spot, trucks that cannot stop when traffic ahead does, and trailers that jackknife on a wet road.
A truck case is not a car case with a bigger vehicle
An 18-wheeler crash is governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which turns questions that are usually arguments into questions with documented answers. Was the driver over the hours-of-service limits? What do the electronic logs show? What is in the driver qualification file? Were the brakes inspected and repaired the way the rules require? Was there a post-crash drug and alcohol test, and if not, why not?
The defendants are different too. The driver may be an owner-operator leased to a carrier. The trailer may belong to someone else. A broker arranged the load, and a shipper loaded it. Each can be responsible, and each may carry its own insurance. For interstate general freight the federal minimum is $750,000, and many carriers carry far more. Finding every policy is where the recovery in a serious case usually comes from.
Which agency has your report
Houston is a big city inside an even bigger county, and who worked your crash depends on exactly where it happened. Inside city limits it is usually the Houston Police Department. In unincorporated Harris County it is the Sheriff’s Office or one of the county’s constable precincts. Cities like Pasadena, Baytown and Pearland have their own departments, and DPS works many state highway crashes. Commercial vehicle crashes may also get a separate inspection of the truck itself. We track down the right report and the inspection; the important thing for you is the report number, if you were able to get it.
When the truck belongs to the government
Not every heavy truck is a private carrier. City of Houston garbage and utility trucks, METRO buses and Harris County vehicles are government vehicles, and claims against them run on different rules. The City of Houston requires notarized written notice within 90 days. Other governmental units generally require notice within six months, and the Texas Tort Claims Act caps what can be recovered. Those deadlines are far shorter than the two-year statute of limitations, and missing them can end the claim.
The first 48 hours belong to the trucking company, unless someone moves
Serious carriers send a rapid response team to the scene, sometimes within hours: an investigator, a reconstructionist, sometimes a lawyer. They can photograph the scene and download the truck’s data before anyone on your side has made a phone call. Meanwhile the evidence that proves your case is on a clock — duty records must be kept only six months, and dashcam video is often recorded over in days. A preservation letter has to reach every company involved while that material still exists. That is the strongest argument for making one call early, even while you are still in treatment.
Where the case is filed matters, too. Most Harris County injury suits go to the civil courthouse at 201 Caroline downtown. An out-of-state trucking company will sometimes try to move the case to federal court a few blocks away. Knowing which court your case is headed for is part of planning it.
Your next steps
See a doctor, and say it was an 18-wheeler
Truck-crash injuries often do not show up at the scene. Get it in the chart on day one.
Photograph the truck’s door and trailer
Company name, USDOT number, trailer number and plates. If you already left, we can trace it.
Ask the officer for the report number
And which department they are with. In Houston it could be one of several.
Call Jimmy
713-600-6233Truck logs and onboard data can be destroyed after six months. Getting the preservation letter out is our job, and it only works if it goes out early.
Common questions here
Which police report do I need for a truck crash in Houston?
The truck was a City of Houston garbage truck or a METRO bus. Is that different?
How much insurance does a trucking company have?
The trucking company already called me. What do I do?
If someone else's negligence put you here, we take it from here
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