What To Do After A Commercial Truck Accident In Wisconsin

By Attorney Howard Eglash

After a collision with a semitruck, delivery truck, construction vehicle, or other commercial vehicle, one of the first questions is often simple: What should you do next?

You might be getting medical care, arranging transportation, missing work, and answering insurance questions while the trucking company or its commercial insurer is already gathering information about the collision. Unlike many two-car accidents, a commercial truck crash might also involve a motor carrier, vehicle or trailer owner, employer, maintenance provider, or another business, depending on the circumstances.

For people injured in La Crosse, Onalaska, West Salem, Sparta, or elsewhere in Western Wisconsin, knowing what to do after a commercial truck accident in Wisconsin starts with health and safety. From there, documenting the crash, keeping useful records, understanding who is contacting you, and recognizing which businesses and insurance policies might be involved helps provide a clearer picture of what comes next.

What Should You Do Immediately After A Commercial Truck Accident In Wisconsin?

Your health and safety should come first.

After a truck crash, seek medical evaluation even if an injury does not seem serious right away. Some symptoms become noticeable after the immediate stress of a collision has passed. If emergency care is needed, call 911, follow the direction of first responders, or go to the nearest appropriate emergency department.

In Western Wisconsin, 24-hour emergency care is available through Emplify Health by Gundersen and Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Mayo Clinic Health System in Sparta, and Tomah Health in Tomah. For crashes near Onalaska, emergency departments in nearby La Crosse serve the area.

Once immediate health and safety needs are addressed, other useful steps often include reporting the crash to law enforcement, exchanging identifying and insurance information, gathering witness information, and documenting the vehicles and roadway when doing so is safe.

Do not stand in traffic or put yourself or anyone else at risk to take photographs or collect information.

Wisconsin requires a crash report when a collision results in an injury, at least $1,000 in damage to any one person’s vehicle or property, or at least $200 in damage to government-owned property other than a vehicle. Law enforcement often completes the report. If law enforcement does not submit a report for a reportable collision, the involved driver generally needs to complete a Wisconsin Driver Report of Crash. WisDOT lists those reporting thresholds and procedures.

What Information Should You Gather From The Truck And Driver?

When conditions allow, gather the basic identifying information available after the collision. This might include the truck driver’s name and available insurance information, along with the company name, license plate, truck or unit number, U.S. Department of Transportation number, and identifying information from the trailer.

Photographs of the truck, trailer, other vehicles, roadway, traffic controls, debris, and surrounding conditions also help document how the scene looked shortly after the crash.

Do not assume the name printed on the side of the truck identifies every business involved.

The tractor might be owned by one business, operated by another motor carrier, and attached to a trailer owned by someone else. The driver might also be an employee or work under another business arrangement. These relationships help explain why determining who is involved in a commercial truck accident claim sometimes requires more investigation than identifying the person behind the wheel.

Why Is Evidence Different After A Commercial Truck Crash?

Some important evidence after a commercial truck accident might be held by the trucking company or another business rather than by the injured person.

Depending on the vehicle, carrier, trip, and regulations involved, relevant information might include driver logs, electronic logging device records, dispatch information, inspection and maintenance records, driver qualification records, cargo documents, electronic vehicle data, insurance records, and other business records.

Federal hours-of-service rules also apply to many commercial drivers. For property-carrying drivers subject to those requirements, FMCSA generally limits driving to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty and prohibits driving beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty.

Where electronic logging requirements apply, motor carriers generally retain records of duty status and supporting documents for six months.

Those records do not prove a trucking company or driver violated a safety rule. They provide additional information when questions arise about driving time, scheduling, vehicle operation, maintenance, or other circumstances surrounding the crash.

Different records also have different retention periods. This is one reason evidence preservation sometimes becomes an important issue in a commercial truck accident investigation.

What Evidence Should You Keep After A Truck Accident?

A person injured in a truck collision rarely has access to every piece of evidence immediately after the crash. Keeping the information already available still matters.

Useful records often include the crash report, photographs, witness information, medical records, medical bills, prescription receipts, repair estimates, towing records, rental vehicle expenses, wage information, work restrictions, insurance correspondence, and copies of documents sent by an insurer.

Keep original documents when possible and preserve electronic photographs and messages.
Medical documentation is particularly important when injuries continue beyond the first days after the accident. Treatment records help establish diagnoses, symptoms, restrictions, care received, and progress over time.

Bosshard Parke has also discussed why medical care after a motor vehicle accident matters even when a person initially feels relatively well.

Who Might Be Responsible For A Commercial Truck Accident?

Responsibility depends on what caused the collision and the relationships among the people and businesses involved.

The truck driver might be one relevant party, but the investigation does not necessarily end there. Depending on the evidence and applicable law, questions might involve the motor carrier, employer, truck owner, trailer owner, maintenance provider, cargo loader, or another business involved in the trip.

For example, a collision caused by a driver’s unsafe lane change presents different issues from a crash involving a mechanical failure. A cargo-related problem raises different questions from a collision involving disputed hours of service.

FMCSA requires motor carriers to maintain certain driver qualification records and systematically inspect, repair, and maintain commercial vehicles under their control.

A regulatory requirement does not establish liability by itself. The investigation still needs to connect the relevant conduct or condition to the collision.

Bosshard Parke’s article explaining how a Wisconsin commercial truck accident claim differs from a car accident claim provides a broader discussion of these potential parties and records.

How Does Wisconsin Comparative Negligence Affect A Truck Accident Claim?

Wisconsin uses a comparative negligence system.

Under Wisconsin Statute § 895.045, an injured person’s own negligence does not automatically prevent recovery when the person’s negligence is not greater than the negligence of the person from whom recovery is sought. Any damages allowed are reduced according to the percentage of negligence attributed to the injured person. Wisconsin law also compares the injured person’s negligence separately with each person found causally negligent.

This becomes important when several vehicles or businesses are involved.

A commercial insurer might argue that another motorist contributed to the crash through speed, following distance, lane position, or another action. The truck driver might give a different account.

Police reports, photographs, video, witness statements, vehicle data, commercial records, and physical evidence help provide a fuller picture than an initial statement from one driver or insurer.

What Should You Know About Commercial Truck Insurance?

Truck accident insurance often involves more than one policy or insurer.

Depending on the circumstances, coverage might involve a motor carrier’s commercial automobile policy, insurance associated with the tractor or trailer, another company’s policy, or an injured person’s own coverage.

A commercial insurer might begin investigating shortly after the collision. Adjusters, investigators, or other representatives might request statements, medical authorizations, records, or settlement discussions.

Accurate communication matters. Avoid guessing about speed, distance, fault, injuries, or other facts you do not know.

Your own insurer has a contractual relationship with you and your policy often includes cooperation requirements. An insurer representing a trucking company or another business has a different relationship with the injured person.

Before signing a broad medical authorization, release, or settlement agreement, understand what information the document permits the insurer to obtain and which claims or parties the agreement covers.

Bosshard Parke’s article about dealing with insurance after a Wisconsin motor vehicle accident provides additional information about adjuster communications, recorded statements, insurance coverage, and settlement decisions.

What If The Trucking Company Contacts You After The Crash?

A call from the trucking company or its insurer after an accident is not unusual. Commercial businesses and insurers routinely investigate crashes involving their vehicles.

Before answering detailed questions, first understand who is contacting you and which company the person represents. Provide accurate information when appropriate, but avoid guessing about speed, distance, fault, injuries, or other facts you do not know.

Additional care is appropriate when someone asks for a recorded statement, broad medical authorization, release, or settlement agreement. Understand what is being requested and what the document permits before signing.

The same applies when medical treatment is still underway. At that point, you might not know how long recovery will take, whether additional treatment will be needed, how much work you will miss, or whether restrictions will continue.

An early settlement offer is not automatically appropriate or inappropriate. The more useful question is whether enough information exists to evaluate the medical, financial, liability, and insurance issues involved.

What If You Were Working When The Truck Accident Happened?

A commercial truck collision sometimes occurs while the injured person is working.
For example, someone driving between jobsites, making deliveries, traveling to appointments, or otherwise performing work duties might have questions about Wisconsin workers’ compensation in addition to a potential claim involving the truck driver or another business.

Depending on the circumstances, the same collision might involve a workers’ compensation claim and a separate personal injury claim against a third party. These claims follow different legal and insurance rules. Workers’ compensation generally focuses on a qualifying work-related injury, while a third-party personal injury claim generally involves responsibility for causing the collision.

Bosshard Parke handles both workers’ compensation and personal injury matters. The relationship between the claims depends on the facts, including why the injured person was traveling, who caused the collision, the businesses involved, and the applicable insurance coverage.

How Long Do You Have To File A Truck Accident Injury Claim In Wisconsin?

Wisconsin generally provides a three-year limitation period for a personal injury action arising from a motor vehicle accident.

Wisconsin Statute § 893.54 states that an action for injuries to a person arising from a motor vehicle accident generally must begin within three years. The same statute generally provides a two-year period for a wrongful death action arising from a motor vehicle accident. Those general periods do not control every situation.

Different rules or notice requirements sometimes apply when a government entity is involved, another state’s law governs part of the dispute, a responsible party dies, or another legal rule applies. Insurance policies also include notice and cooperation requirements separate from the statute of limitations.

The legal filing deadline is also different from the practical lifespan of evidence. Electronic records, video, vehicle data, and other information might change or disappear much earlier.

When Should You Speak With A Truck Accident Attorney?

Not every collision involving a commercial vehicle requires legal representation.

Speaking with an attorney often becomes more useful when injuries are serious or ongoing, responsibility is disputed, several businesses appear to be involved, insurance coverage is unclear, commercial records need evaluation, or an insurer proposes a settlement before the medical picture is understood.

An attorney reviews the crash evidence, identifies businesses and insurance policies that appear relevant, evaluates medical and wage documentation, and considers whether additional trucking records should be preserved or requested.

Bosshard Parke’s Personal Injury practice represents people and families affected by serious motor vehicle accidents throughout Western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota. Its dedicated Truck Accident practice addresses collisions involving semitrucks and other commercial vehicles.

What Matters Most After A Commercial Truck Accident?

A commercial truck crash differs from many ordinary car accidents because the relevant information might extend beyond the vehicles and drivers at the scene. Motor carriers, business relationships, commercial insurance, electronic records, driver information, and vehicle maintenance records sometimes become part of determining what happened and who might be responsible.
For an injured person, the priorities remain practical. Address medical needs, keep the records available to you, communicate accurately, and avoid making assumptions about fault or insurance coverage before enough information is known.

Every truck accident involves different vehicles, businesses, injuries, policies, and evidence. Understanding those differences helps injured people and their families ask better questions as the insurance and legal process develops.

This article provides general educational information and does not constitute legal advice.

Contact Bosshard Parke About A Wisconsin Commercial Truck Accident

If you or a family member was injured in a commercial truck accident in Wisconsin, Bosshard Parke helps injured people understand the liability, insurance, evidence, and procedural questions surrounding a truck accident claim.

Attorney Howard J. Eglash has more than 35 years of legal experience and focuses part of his practice on personal injury and civil litigation. Bosshard Parke serves clients through its La Crosse and Sparta offices and throughout Western Wisconsin.