Deborah Lockridge
What should a truck driver and trucking company do after a crash?
You’ve done everything you can to prevent crashes at your trucking fleet. The latest advanced safety equipment. In-cab cameras. Driver training and coaching. Creating a culture of safety.
But still, accidents will happen. Attorneys will file lawsuits. What happens after a crash can make a big difference in how your company fares in court, as well as affect your insurance.
What policies, procedures, training, and technology can your fleet implement post-crash to improve those outcomes?
Train Drivers Before the Crash Happens
Jennifer Akre, managing partner at Tyson & Mendes, stresses the importance of the first moments after a crash.
“The immediate 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes following a crash are really, really important,” says Akre, who has extensive experience in defending trucking fleets.
These early moments are often the hardest for attorneys, who must rely on secondhand accounts and policies rather than firsthand evidence.
Adam Lang emphasizes the importance of acting quickly and decisively: “One of my favorite words is alacrity,” says Lang, who is director of customer advisory services at Netradyne.
During his nearly 10 years at Wisconsin-based Halvor Lines, the truckload fleet earned numerous safety awards, including Lang being named the winner of HDT’s Safety & Compliance Award for 2020.
Another award-winning fleet safety executive, Jeremy Stickling, chief administrative officer for Illinois-based Nussbaum Transportation, also stresses moving quickly after a crash.
“The sooner we know if there is a severe one where there’s critical injury, that’s where we can mobilize the boots on the ground,” says Stickling, who is the 2025 Truckload Carriers Association Safety Professional of the Year.
“We can let our insurance company know right away. They can get the resources out to the scene and collect all the context while it’s fresh.”
The Business Case for Reporting Truck Crash Claims Early
It’s vital to get the claim reported to your insurance company as soon as possible, says Nick Saeger, assistant vice president for transportation products and pricing at Sentry Insurance.
“When we know that something happened, we can get in touch with everybody that’s been impacted, to the extent that we have the contact information — the trucking company owner, the driver himself, any other impacted third parties,” he says.
“We can let them know how the claims process might proceed and just help them become better acquainted with how we expect it to go.”
Even if you don’t believe your driver is at fault, even if the police officer at the scene says it wasn’t the driver’s fault, Saeger says, your insurance company needs to know as soon as possible.
“Liability and negligence laws vary widely from state to state,” he explains. “So even when a fleet thinks their driver is not at fault, you still need to report those claims.
“In some states, in the worst of scenarios, even if your driver is apportioned just 1% of fault, it’s possible for that accident or that claim to go straight to policy limits if the outcome or if the accident is severe enough. So when we know it’s possible, we can get in front of that and help eliminate those scenarios.”
Allowing the insurance company to get involved from the beginning also can affect a carrier’s ultimate cost of insurance.
“If you have a $25,000 or a $50,000 liability deductible, you are on the hook for that,” Saeger says. “Getting the insurance company involved can help save you actual dollars in those situations.
“Plaintiff attorneys are getting involved more frequently and earlier on in the claims process. The sooner we know, the sooner we can help.”
Truck Driver Crash Response Steps to Protect Your Fleet
A trucking fleet should train its truck drivers on what they should — and shouldn’t — do after a crash.
The first thing a driver should address after a crash is the safety of the scene. For instance, if the collision involved a utility pole on a wet road, you wouldn’t want the driver jumping out to help others only to get electrocuted by a live power line.
“You want to make sure that the area around the driver is safe,” Lang says. “If they’re not safe, they can’t do anything.
“I want that driver putting their flashers on and getting their high-vis triangles out and putting their high-vis equipment on when they get out of the vehicle. Day, night, doesn’t matter. I want it on.”
Drivers should call 911 before they even notify the company.
“Even if somebody at the scene says they’ve called 911, it doesn’t matter,” Lang says. “You want the driver to call 911, inform law enforcement quickly, and then you want that call to come in to the company.”
Once others in the crash have been seen to, 911 called and the driver’s company notified, drivers should take photos and/or video of the scene and gather other information that may be helpful. (More details on this in Part 2.)
Small Gestures Can Have a Big Legal Impact
“I had a driver who taught me something very valuable,” Lang says. “He was involved in a crash, and when he went and talked to the other motorist involved, he brought a bottle of water over to them and said, ‘Are you OK? Here’s some water.’
“The other driver remembered that small act of kindness, and it helped us solve that claim very quickly.”
Traditional thinking has seen trucking companies telling drivers not to get out of the truck, for fear that they might do or say something that could lead to litigation later on. But that’s changing.
“You’ll see some coaching out there that says the driver should never say ‘sorry’ at the scene,” says Stickling.
“I flinch at that a little bit. There’s humans involved, and there should be empathy and care.”
Why Empathy Matters in Trucking Crash Response
Akre has seen from experience what can happen when a driver doesn’t show concern for others at the scene.
“I think that the old advice was, ‘Don’t say anything, don’t talk to anyone, don’t call anyone, buckle down and call your boss immediately and let them handle it,” she says.
“That led to a bunch of cases where I had a plaintiff or multiple plaintiffs that are injured, and I’ve got a truck driver who’s been told to sit in the cab of his truck and do nothing.”
Two years later, she says, the driver ends up being grilled in a deposition by the plaintiff’s attorney, who is saying something like, “So while my client was bleeding in her car, you didn’t even go check on her. While my client was pinned underneath your truck, you didn’t even get out of the cab to go check on her.”
When the driver responds that it’s company policy, the corporate representative must try to explain why that policy exists.
“And the corporate rep can’t really explain it outside of, ‘We’re just trying to cover our butts from a liability perspective. And because my lawyers told me to,’” Akre says.
“If you want to tick off a jury? Don’t take care of the plaintiff. Don’t be a human.”
After a Truck Crash: ‘Be a Human’
In fact, Tyson & Mendes, a pioneer in fighting against “nuclear verdicts,” is unveiling a new litigation and trial strategy called The Apex.
“The first rule of our Apex method is to be a human,” Akre says. “Be a good human. So I think the better advice is to get out of your truck, if it’s safe to do so, and go check on the other people.”
Don’t Let Your Fleet’s Safety Manuals Hurt You in Court
Drivers should not discuss liability, but they should be encouraged to show basic human concern. Lang says.
“It doesn’t have to be a big conversation. It can just be, ‘I’m checking on you. Are you okay?’”
“When people are injured, in that first 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is,” Akre says. “That’s for the lawyers to deal with later. Right then, the only thing that matters is, ‘How are you? Do you need help?’ Just take care of the other person, be a good human first, and the rest will follow.”
At Nussbaum, Stickling says, “What we do is just make sure [drivers are] careful about who they talk to and what they say, because it can be used against you.
“It’s hard for me to see the risk of a driver showing that they actually care.”
Experts Recommend Mitigation Strategies Like Ensuring Safety of Equipment, Smart Insurance Policies, Relationships With Attorneys
Connor D. Wolf
SAN DIEGO — The trucking industry has been facing surging unfavorable verdicts and insurance costs as biases and policies drive up costs beyond economic reality, according to a panel of experts Oct. 28 at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition.
“A variety of factors including global events, natural disasters, economic conditions, legal trends and rising claim costs are impacting corporate insurance expenses,” said Pamela Blass Bracher, deputy general counsel at ATA. “With costs increasing per mile and new insurance capacity entering the market slowly, motor carriers face ongoing challenges in procuring insurance and managing their risk program.”
Bracher added that claims are remaining open for longer, and plaintiff attorneys are quicker about filing lawsuits, forgoing pre-suit claim demands and settlement talks. She said this has resulted in an increase in average loss severity for both indemnities and expenses, while insurance companies raise premiums, reduce coverage and withdraw from certain markets in response.
“Traditional economic drivers, such as wage inflation, medical cost trends and [consumer price index] growth, no longer explain the pace at which liability claims are escalating,” Bracher said. “To accommodate rising insurance costs, trucking companies have employed strategies, and they’re rethinking their total limits. Legal dynamics, including tort reform and state judicial elections, continue to shape the industry landscape. Raising public awareness of litigation trends has never been more important.”
Bracher pointed out that these insurance policies don’t just reflect carriers’ risk profiles; the emotional and psychological biases of jurors across the country are now factoring into premiums too. She said this underscores the need for the insurance industry to better explain how litigation dynamics impact cost and availability.
“It’s a supply and demand question, just like all of us are dealing with in the trucking space right now,” said Nathan Meisgeier, president and chief legal officer at Werner Enterprises. “In auto liability, frankly, in any corporate insurance market, it starts with a supply and demand question. … As insurers have started to shrink the policies that they’re willing to write, as the number of insurers available to us shrinks, that’s a supply side part of the dynamic.”
A nuclear verdict that went against Werner was overturned by the Texas Supreme Court this June. (Werner Enterprises)
Werner was the defendant in a fatal highway accident that occurred in Texas in 2014. A Werner tractor was struck by a pickup truck whose driver lost control on icy roads and crossed the median. The jury initially awarded $89.7 million in damages to the plaintiffs in 2018. After one unsuccessful appeal, the decision was overturned by the Texas Supreme Court this June. The carrier pointed to the fact that the truck driver stayed in his lane and was below the speed limit.
“But even before the Werner verdict happened in 2018, we had a year where our rates went up significantly, and our loss run was frankly stellar,” Meisgeier said. “There’s part of the analysis that is not controlled. And so, the overall macro is happening to you, and you can’t control that part. What can you control? You can control things like what kind of equipment are you running? You can control things like, what do your policies say? You can control things like, when you’re getting data off of your telematics system, are you doing anything with it, or are you just putting it in a storage container somewhere for a plaintiff lawyer to mine someday?”
Meisgeier also stressed the importance of ingraining safety into company culture. That means making sure every driver knows that nothing is worth the risk of hurting themselves or others and that people and loads aren’t being pushed too hard. At the foundational level, he said it boils down to good training across the company.
“We’re viewed as all one industry, it’s all together, and we’re very different sizes and have very different experiences, but our value of safety and safety toward the motoring public is really important,” said Kristin Glazner, chief administrative officer at Wabash. “The second item being, regardless of the size of the company you are, really knowing your lawyers.”
Glazner added that carriers should retain lawyers that understand their culture and values. She recommended carriers use lawyers to inspect whether any of their operations and procedures increase liability risks. If a carrier has an upcoming case, she said the legal team should learn from their lawyers about the nuances, like what the judge is like, to calibrate a better approach. She also highlighted the importance of getting help from associations and groups like ATA.
“Tort reform is really important,” Glazner said. “That’s not something that can just happen federally. Do we want that to happen federally, absolutely. There are things, particularly in the product liability space, that would be very helpful to have it federally. But most of the tort reform … is very state to state, and how states view negligence. That is an important activity, it’s a journey, that work may never be done completely.”
Mark Schremmer
About two decades ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration attempted to study the causes of large truck crashes.
It’s fair to say that the truck crash study was a disappointment.
As Land Line Managing Editor Jami Jones pointed out in a recent analysis, the study didn’t determine who was at fault or really why the crash happened. Instead, it focused on pre-collision events rather than consequences.
Jones recalled one peculiar example in the previous Large Truck Crash Causation Study.
“A truck turns across the path of an oncoming car at an intersection. The critical event is the truck’s turn across the path of the other vehicle. The truck had the turn arrow, observed the oncoming vehicle and assumed that the oncoming vehicle would stop, which proved to be incorrect. (Right-of-way, which is captured separately, does not necessarily determine the critical event, because the collision may still be avoidable.) The critical reason is ‘false assumption of other road user’s actions.’”
So, instead of focusing on the car that ran the red light, the example turned the spotlight on the truck driver for assuming that other vehicles would follow traffic laws. Seriously?
No doubt, we needed a redo.
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included a provision that required a “Study of Commercial Motor Vehicle Crash Causation.” This past August, the FMCSA published a notice and request for comments about its plans to conduct another study.
“FMCSA intends to collect data over the course of two years with a target start date of early 2026,” the agency wrote in the notice. “Collection and receipt of data may continue beyond the 2-year study period based on state-specific agreements and the renewal of this information collection request. At the conclusion of the study, a final report and supporting database with aggregate, anonymized results will be published.”
OOIDA comments
On Oct. 27, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed formal comments in support of the new study looking at Class 7 and Class 8 trucks.
OOIDA President Todd Spencer wrote that the new study gives the agency an opportunity to drastically improve upon “the failed structures and methodologies” of the initial Large Truck Crash Causation Study.
Spencer added that the study has the potential to help identify key driver, vehicle, motor carrier and environmental factors that may contribute to fatal crashes involving heavy-duty trucks.
“Moving forward, we are hopeful the Crash Causal Factors Program will be completed in a meticulous manner and can guide effective safety improvement policies and programs,” Spencer wrote.
Overdrive Staff
- Watchers credited several factors — from inflation in equipment and medical costs to nuclear verdicts and pressure to settle suits — for an unprecedented rise in trucking insurance premiums.
- The FTC has concluded an investigation into truck OEMs’ Clean Truck Partnership with CARB; Nebraska’s AG dropped a suit challenging the partnership.
- Truck and trailer parts distributor TruckPro recently donated $115,000 to four charity organizations that it supports.
Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show insurance premiums for the commercial vehicle sector are at all-time highs — likely no surprise to owner-operators and small fleets.
Overdrive’s sister dealer publication Truck, Parts, Service recently offered an update on how soaring insurance costs are affecting truckers’ equipment purchases. In reporting from TPS’s Beth Colvin, analyst Avery Vise of FTR Transportation Intelligence credited several factors, including inflation, for rising trucking insurance costs.
“If you think about even liability insurance, hospitalization costs have gone up, the cost of vehicles have gone up,” Vise said. “If you’re in an accident and you damage a car or total a car, the cost of that goes up. The lost income goes up. You have the nuclear verdict issue, which is kind of its own issue, but you also have the fact that the actual cost to replace things to compensate has gone up.”
Insurance underwriters are also anticipating further inflation as a result of any future tariffs on trucks and truck parts, particularly from Mexico and Canada, which has led to some insurance increases since January, Colvin reported.
“They are expecting the spare parts to go up a lot because of the embedded tariffs,” even if those tariffs aren’t active yet, and even if not every replacement part is exposed, said Thom Albrecht, CFO and chief revenue officer for Reliance Partners.
Beyond nuclear verdicts, litigation in general is also spiking insurance costs, as verdicts and case settlements below “nuclear” levels are still higher than they have been in the past.
“Maybe five to seven years ago, a broken leg and lost wages might have represented $80,000 to $100,000,” Albrecht said. “We see the same claim settle [today] for $300,000 to $400,000.”
As a result, owner-operators and fleets are holding onto equipment longer than they maybe traditionally would have.
As reported earlier this year, there are ways for owners to ensure they are making the best case for themselves when it comes time for their insurance renewal.
Land Line Media
Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life; the trucking industry is no exception.
Autonomous vehicles are being deployed expeditiously, while states have utilized AI technology for truck parking systems, platooning and more.
Arkansas is the latest state to announce an AI-driven technology for trucking purposes.
State officials said a $2.7 million project will modernize trucking operations in one of the state’s most critical freight corridors.
ARDOT will partner with the Arkansas Highway Police and Quarterhill on a system that will feature weigh-in-motion sensors capturing truck weights at highway speeds and real-time detection of unsafe tires.
License plate recognition, DOT checks and Intelligent Roadside Operations Computer (IROC) will verify vehicle credentials instantly.
Message boards will alert drivers who need further inspection.
“Partnering with Quarterhill allows us to bring cutting-edge tools to two of Arkansas’ most important freight gateways,” Jeff Holmes, Chief of Arkansas Highway Police, said. “These upgrades will strengthen enforcement, improve roadway safety, and keep goods moving efficiently across our state and beyond. This initiative is a win for our economy, drivers, and communities.”
The system will be deployed at two key entry points, eastbound Interstate 40 in Lehi, Ark., and on southbound Interstate 55 in Marion, Ark.
These highways see some of the highest truck volumes in the nations, a news release said.
“This project demonstrates how technical innovation and collaboration can solve real-world challenges in freight management and strengthen Arkansas’ position as a national leader in freight movement,” Quarterhill CEO Chuck Myers said. “By working hand in hand with ARDOT and the Arkansas Highway Police, we are ensuring that Arkansas’ highways remain safe, efficient, and capable of supporting growth in interstate commerce for decades to come.”
Washington state DOT has also recently partnered with Quarterhill on a truck parking initiative.
That system is designed to help truck drivers quickly locate available parking at rest areas along Interstate 5.
“This project is a prime example of how public agencies and private partners can work together to improve highway safety,” said Matt Neeley, state traffic systems development engineer for WSDOT. “Reliable access to truck parking information not only supports safer freight movement but also strengthens the resilience of Washington’s transportation network for all road users.”
Taking responsibility for safety does not merely involve assigning a title; it involves fostering accountability, expertise, and a culture in which each employee takes responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others.
Jane Clark
Key takeaways
- Safety ownership varies by organization size, with larger companies often having dedicated safety managers and smaller ones relying on HR.
- HR involvement has benefits and challenges, as it can streamline safety initiatives while lacking the technical expertise for comprehensive oversight.
- A balanced approach that combines HR’s administrative role with a safety manager’s technical oversight can effectively promote safety as a core organizational value.
Safety is one of the most critical concerns in our industry, whether it’s protecting our drivers on the road, safeguarding our technicians in the shop, or ensuring the well-being of other motorists. It’s a multifaceted responsibility that demands consistent attention to safe driving habits, rigorous asset maintenance, and strict adherence to regulatory standards. Yet even with these measures in place, accidents can and do happen. When they do, the question arises: Who in the organization truly owns safety?
At a recent NationaLease meeting, Glenn Hebert, president of Cox & Smith Risk Management, emphasized that ownership of the safety function often depends on the size and structure of the organization. While larger companies may benefit from a dedicated safety manager, smaller organizations often delegate safety responsibilities to the human resources department because of their limited resources.
When HR owns safety
In smaller operations, HR often integrates safety into broader employee welfare initiatives. This approach can streamline communication and embed safety into the overall employee experience. HR’s involvement can foster a unified focus on well-being, which in turn boosts morale and reinforces a culture of care. It also offers a practical solution for resource-constrained companies, eliminating the need for a separate safety role.
However, this model is not without its drawbacks. HR professionals may lack the technical expertise required for comprehensive safety oversight, which can result in compliance gaps or missed opportunities for proactive risk mitigation. Additionally, with HR juggling multiple responsibilities, from recruitment to benefits administration, safety may be unintentionally deprioritized.
When a safety manager owns safety
In contrast, larger organizations often appoint a dedicated safety manager to oversee safety protocols across departments. This role brings specialized knowledge, ensuring that safety regulations are met and that best practices are consistently applied. A safety manager can also cultivate a proactive safety culture, identifying risks before they escalate and implementing targeted training programs.
While this model enhances safety outcomes, it does come with increased costs. Moreover, if responsibilities are not clearly delineated, overlaps with HR or operations can lead to confusion and inefficiencies. Still, for high-risk industries, the investment in a dedicated safety professional is often justified by the reduction in incidents and liabilities.
Striking the right balance
Ultimately, the decision of who owns safety should be guided by the organization’s size, risk exposure, and operational complexity. In some cases, a hybrid model may be the most effective, where HR handles the administrative aspects of safety, while a safety manager oversees technical compliance and execution. Regardless of the structure, what matters most is that safety is not treated as an afterthought but rather as a core organizational value.
Taking responsibility for safety does not merely involve assigning a title; it involves fostering accountability, expertise, and a culture in which each employee takes responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others. Whether through HR, a safety manager, or a collaborative approach, the true owner of safety is the organization itself.
