Commercial truck drivers and carriers have to follow FMCSA regulations. Those rules cover hours-of-service limits for drivers, drug and alcohol testing, vehicle inspection and maintenance, and driver qualification standards.
The ones that matter most in a crash case: a property-carrying driver can’t drive more than 11 hours after 10 hours off, or past the 14th hour on duty (49 C.F.R. § 395.3). Carriers have to drug and alcohol test drivers before hiring them and after qualifying crashes (Part 382), keep a qualification file on every driver (Part 391), and inspect and maintain their trucks with records to prove it (Part 396). Freight that starts and ends in Texas runs under the state’s version of these rules.
Since 2021, if the trucking company splits the trial in two, a violation comes into the first phase only if it helped cause the crash (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 72.053). So we tie the logs to the timeline of the wreck. Those records have short retention periods, which is why our preservation letter goes out the same week. See our Houston truck accident lawyer page.
Violations of these federal regulations are often strong evidence of negligence in a truck accident claim, which is why obtaining a driver’s logs and the carrier’s maintenance and safety records early is critical to building a strong case.
Hurt because someone else was careless? Call (713) 664-4000 or fill out the form on this page for a free consultation. We work on a contingency fee: no fee unless we recover, and if we don’t recover, you don’t owe us for case expenses either.
A Houston trial lawyer since 2009, representing injured people and their families, and defending the accused in DWI and criminal cases. Jay is an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, a certified practitioner and instructor of Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, a certified Drug Recognition Expert, and trained in forensic chromatography. He is a member of the National College for DUI Defense, a founding member of the DUI Defense Lawyers Association, and a commissioner on the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, appointed by Gov. Abbott in 2023.
Last reviewed July 2026 · This article is legal information, not legal advice. Read Jay’s full bio →