Bakersfield Truck Accident Lawyers for Injured Drivers and Families

A truck accident lawyer pursues claims for people hurt in crashes with semi-trucks, delivery trucks, and other commercial vehicles. It also helps families who lose a loved one in one of these crashes. Colvin Accident Lawyers is based in Bakersfield, California, and represents accident victims and families in Kern County, Fresno, Visalia, Lancaster, Palmdale, Delano, and Tehachapi. This guide covers who may be responsible, what evidence matters, and how a claim review works. Truck cases move differently from ordinary car crashes, so early steps count.

What Truck Accident Representation Covers and Who It Is For

A truck accident lawyer handles injury and wrongful death claims that arise from crashes involving commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles include semi-trucks, delivery trucks, box trucks, and other large work vehicles.

These claims can cover drivers and passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and families of people killed in a crash. Some crashes involve more than one type of vehicle, and the facts decide which claims apply.

Truck cases differ from typical car crashes in three ways. Federal and state rules govern how carriers run their trucks. More than one company can be tied to a single crash. And carriers keep large volumes of records that need to be requested early.

Colvin Accident Lawyers also handles car, motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, and bus crashes. When a truck is involved, the rules below apply.

Who Can Be Held Responsible When a Truck Crashes

More than one party may be responsible, and the driver is only one of them.

• The driver. A driver can be liable for negligence such as distraction, speeding, or failing to yield.
• The trucking company or employer. In general, California can hold an employer responsible for an employee’s negligence on the job.
• Companies tied to the driver or the truck. A company can face claims for its own choices, such as hiring or keeping a driver it should have known was unfit, or for poor maintenance.
• Vehicle owners. Under Cal. Veh. Code § 17150, an owner is liable for injury caused by a negligent driver using the vehicle with the owner’s permission.
• Brokers.
• Others. Cargo loaders, maintenance contractors, and sometimes parts makers may also be involved.

Your damages are reduced by your share of fault, so a partly at-fault person can still have a claim (Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804).

Non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, follow a different split. Under Cal. Civ. Code § 1431.2, each defendant is liable only for its own percentage of those damages. The company behind the driver often holds the insurance and records that shape a claim.

Common Causes and Injuries in Truck Crashes

Truck crashes often trace back to fatigue, poor maintenance, unsecured cargo, distraction, impairment, or underride collisions. Knowing the likely cause helps shape which records to request.

• Fatigue. Federal rules require motor carriers subject to the hours-of-service rules, except private motor carriers of passengers (nonbusiness), to require each driver to record the driver’s duty status for every 24-hour period, under 49 C.F.R. § 395.8.
• Maintenance. Brake or tire failure can cause a truck to lose control.
• Cargo. Overloaded or improperly secured loads can shift or spill onto the road.
• Distraction or impairment. A driver who is texting or impaired can miss hazards.
• Underride. A car can slide under the back of a trailer, which can cause severe injuries.

Blind spots and wide turns are common factors in collisions with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians.

Truck crash injuries can include spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, crush injuries, broken bones, internal injuries, amputations, and burns. Some symptoms appear days later, so an early medical checkup helps create a clear record. Catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases often take longer to investigate because the damages records are more detailed.

How a Truck Claim Review Works, Step by Step

A review starts with a consultation, moves to evidence and investigation, and then becomes an insurance claim or a lawsuit. Each step affects the next, so timing matters.

1. Contact the firm. Describe the crash and schedule a consultation with Colvin Accident Lawyers.
2. Share what you have. Bring the police report number, photos, medical records, insurance letters, and witness names.
3. Request the evidence early. Driver logs, electronic logging device data, maintenance records, and dispatch records can all matter. Under 49 C.F.R. § 379.7, records may be preserved by any technology that accurately reflects all of the information in the record and remains accessible in a form that can be accurately reproduced later. After certain commercial vehicle crashes, 49 C.F.R. § 382.303 requires employers to test surviving drivers as soon as practicable. If an alcohol test is not given within two hours, the employer must keep a record of why. Alcohol testing attempts stop after eight hours. Controlled substance testing attempts stop after 32 hours.
4. Investigate liability and damages. Work out who was legally responsible and what your injuries and losses are.
5. Pursue the claim. Depending on the facts and the insurer’s response, the next step may be a demand or a lawsuit.

In general, California gives two years to file an injury lawsuit under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1. The California Courts Self Help Guide says this two-year rule generally applies to truck and motorcycle injury lawsuits, subject to exceptions. Wrongful death claims have their own rules about who may sue, set out in Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 377.60.

If a city, county, state agency, or public transit operator may be involved, Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2 requires a claim for death, injury to person, or damage to personal property or growing crops to be presented within six months after the cause of action accrues; other claims must be presented within one year after accrual.

What to Ask in Your Truck Accident Consultation

Your consultation is the time to ask how a truck claim would be handled on your facts. Bring these questions so you leave with clear answers.

• Which parties may be responsible, based on what I describe?
• Which deadlines could apply, including any public agency involved?
• Which records should be requested now, and who will request them?
• Who will handle my case day to day, and how will I get updates?
• Can you explain all fee and cost terms in writing before I agree to anything?

Expect plain answers. No lawyer can promise a particular result, because each claim turns on its own facts.

Why Colvin Accident Lawyers

Colvin Accident Lawyers is a personal injury firm based in Bakersfield, California. It handles truck, car, motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, bus, train, dog bite, premises liability, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death cases.

• Responsible lawyer. Donald Norman Colvin is the responsible lawyer for this website.
• Support staff. The firm’s assistants and office staff support the work of the firm’s lawyers.
• Service area. Our team serves clients in Kern County and the other communities named on this page.
• First consultation. The first consultation is free, confidential, and carries no obligation to continue.

Raise questions about records and updates in that first conversation. You can judge the answers for yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions