The 405 through West Los Angeles carries commuter traffic and heavy freight in the same lanes. A truck braking for a backup at Sunset, or changing lanes toward the Wilshire ramps, can turn a routine slowdown into a multi-vehicle wreck with injuries that outrun an ordinary auto policy. The civil file is larger than a two-car San Vicente sideswipe, and it has more places to lose a document.
Who may be in the claim
A truck wreck can involve the driver, the motor carrier and the owner of the tractor or trailer, a freight broker in some situations and, occasionally, a public entity if a roadway condition or a public vehicle is part of the story. Those are fact questions, not a list you should assume from the paint on the cab. Photograph the door markings, the USDOT or MC number if you can see it, the trailer plate, the cargo type and the final rest of each vehicle, including vehicles that were only bumped in the chain.
Federal motor-carrier rules can also matter, including hours-of-service and insurance-filing requirements, but those rules are technical and should be read in their current official text if they become part of the case. The California pieces still apply. Fault is compared under official instruction CACI 405. Noneconomic harm is several only, in proportion to each defendant’s share, under CIV 1431.2. A government defendant still has the six-month claim date in GOV 911.2.
Insurance is often larger, and still not automatic
A commercial policy is often larger than the ordinary auto floor in VEH 16056. That does not mean the first offer will be large, or that every defendant is covered. Some trucks are leased. Some carriers are thinly insured. Some wrecks involve a light work truck that looks commercial and is not. The declarations you can actually obtain, and the insurer that answers a claim letter, matter more than a guess from the size of the vehicle.
If the truck is underinsured for the harm, underinsured coverage on a household auto policy may fill part of the gap, subject to INS 11580.2, including the no-stacking rule and the credit for amounts already paid. If a rideshare vehicle was in the same pileup, PUC 5433 may put a different policy in play for that vehicle. The rideshare guide and the insurance guide separate those coverages.
The report and the early medical file
A 405 truck crash is often a CHP investigation. Use the official CHP request path described in the report guide, with form CHP 190 and the published page-count fees. If the first impact was on a surface street and the truck only ended on the ramp, it may instead be an LAPD report. Do not send a CHP form to LAPD, or the other way around.
Get medical care promptly. Truck wrecks produce spinal, brain and internal injuries that are not always obvious in the first hour. Keep bills and work-restriction notes with the report number. Hospital and health-plan reimbursement claims often follow a serious 405 file, and they belong in the same folder as the photographs of the cab numbers. The medical-bills guide covers that part of the file.
What not to do in the first week
Do not give an audio statement to a carrier you have not identified until you know who that carrier represents. A truck insurer may call quickly. You can confirm that you were in the wreck and that you are getting treatment without narrating a guess about following distance in the southbound lanes. Do not sign a medical-authorization form that is broader than the crash injuries, and do not sign a release while treatment is still changing.
If a death is involved, the people who can bring a claim, and the damages they can ask for, are not the same as in an injury case. The fatal-crash guide is the better starting point for that situation.
Deadlines
CCP 335.1 still gives two years to file an injury or death lawsuit. A child’s own claim may have a pause under CCP 352, but that pause does not apply to a Government Claims Act case. If a Caltrans issue, a city vehicle or a county vehicle is in the story, the six-month date in GOV 911.2 is the one that arrives first. The government-claims guide names the City of Los Angeles and County desks, and it explains the later lawsuit dates in GOV 945.6.
A serious truck file is a reason to talk with an attorney early, while the cab markings, the electronic logs and the scene evidence still exist. Bring the photographs, the report number and the declarations page. Confirm the person’s California license, and ask what work like yours that office has handled.
If a child was in one of the cars, or if a death is part of the file, use the children’s guide or the fatal-crash guide together with this one. A 405 truck wreck can touch every one of those calendars at once, and the earliest date is the one that should be on the paper calendar in the first week.
- Motor carrier
- The company responsible for the truck’s operation, which may or may not be the same as the name painted on the door.
- Several liability for noneconomic harm
- The CIV 1431.2 rule that each defendant pays only that defendant’s share of pain-and-suffering and similar losses.
- Release
- A settlement document that typically ends every claim from the wreck, including ones that have not yet been fully understood in a serious truck case.