California Truck Accident Lawyers

A crash with a big rig in California is a claim against a regulated business, and the rules that business broke often decide the case.

Trucks with three or more axles are limited to 55 miles per hour on California roads, and drivers on intrastate routes may drive no more than 12 hours after a 10-hour break.

Carriers must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and more for hazardous loads.

The trucking company, the freight broker, the shipper, and the owner of the trailer can all share responsibility.

Most claims must be filed within two years, and the electronic logs and engine data can disappear much sooner.

If a big rig hit you or someone in your family, call (888) 713-6653 with your questions.

California layers its own trucking rules on top of the federal ones, and a violation of either is strong evidence of negligence.

• Hours of service. A driver hauling property within California may drive no more than 12 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive after the 16th hour on duty, and is capped at 80 hours in any 8 days, under 13 CCR § 1212.5.^[1] Interstate drivers follow the federal limits of 11 hours of driving inside a 14-hour window, with a 30-minute break after 8 hours.
• Speed. Vehicle Code § 22406 limits a truck or truck tractor with three or more axles, or any truck pulling a trailer, to 55 miles per hour, even where cars may go 65 or 70.
• Phones. Federal rules for commercial drivers bar texting and handheld phone use while driving, including while stopped in traffic, and bar carriers from requiring it.
• Permits. A carrier operating a commercial truck in California needs a Motor Carrier Permit from the DMV, issued only with proof of insurance, under Vehicle Code § 34620.

Proving a violation means getting the carrier's records: the electronic logging device data, dispatch records, fuel receipts, and the driver's qualification file. Our page on trucking hours-of-service rules covers the federal side in more depth.

A driver over the hours limit or running 70 in a 55 zone gives the claim a regulatory violation to stand on, which is often what moves a trucking insurer to pay.

Vehicle Code § 34631.5 sets the minimum liability coverage for California motor carriers: $750,000 for most carriers, $300,000 for carriers running only vehicles under 10,000 pounds, $1,200,000 for intrastate bulk petroleum haulers, and the higher federal amounts for hazardous materials.^[2] Interstate carriers carry at least $750,000 under federal rules, $1,000,000 for oil and most hazardous loads, and $5,000,000 for certain bulk hazardous substances and explosives.

Those are floors. Many carriers carry excess or umbrella policies above them, and a shipper, broker, or trailer owner may carry its own. The federal MCS-90 endorsement can also guarantee payment in situations a policy would otherwise exclude, as our page on trucking insurance layers and the MCS-90 explains.

A box truck or a pickup hauling for hire under 10,000 pounds may carry only $300,000, which can be gone after one serious injury, so identifying every company involved matters most in exactly those cases.

Southern California moves more freight than anywhere else in the country, and the crashes follow the freight.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the 710

The two ports handled 20,120,913 twenty-foot container units in 2025, about 31 percent of all containerized international waterborne trade in the United States.^[3] Metro's planning studies count about 39,000 trucks a day on the 710 south of the 405, 85 percent of them serving the ports. Container chassis, rushed turn times at the terminals, and owner-operator drivers make these crashes legally complicated. The companies that can share the blame for a port truck crash, from the motor carrier to the chassis owner, are sorted out on our page for Los Angeles truck accident claims.

The 60, the 10, and the Inland Empire warehouses

The American Transportation Research Institute ranks the SR-60 interchange with SR-57 and the I-10 interchange with I-15 in Ontario among the worst truck bottlenecks in the country, at 16th and 12th on its 2026 list. Warehouse traffic into Riverside and San Bernardino counties fills those corridors around the clock.

Cajon Pass on I-15

The climb between the Inland Empire and the high desert has produced repeated chain-reaction crashes involving big rigs, including a 2009 fog pileup that began when a truck came upon slower traffic and jackknifed, a 40-vehicle crash in ice and snow on Christmas Day 2018, and a 14-vehicle fog pileup weeks later in January 2019.

Otay Mesa and the border

The Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego County took in 1,059,759 trucks from Mexico in 2024 and 990,111 in 2025, second only to Laredo among U.S.-Mexico truck crossings. Crashes with that border freight on SR-905, I-805, and I-5 are the subject of our page on San Diego truck crash claims.

I-5 and SR-99 through the Central Valley

Freight bound for Northern California runs I-5 and SR-99 through Kern County and the valley, where tanker and agricultural trucks share long rural stretches with commuters.

Where the crash happened points to which records matter, from a terminal's gate logs in Long Beach to a carrier's dispatch times for a run over the pass.

A California truck accident case is worth the full cost of the injury, with no cap on pain and suffering, and in serious cases the coverage behind a commercial carrier is usually large enough to pay it.

• Medical expenses, past and future, measured by what was paid or owed under Howell v. Hamilton Meats for past care
• Lost earnings and earning capacity for a career cut short
• Pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, uncapped in California truck cases
• Wrongful death damages for a family, under the rules on our page about who can file a California wrongful death claim
• Punitive damages under Civil Code § 3294 when the carrier's conduct was malicious or oppressive, which for a company requires that an officer, director, or managing agent knew of or approved it

Pure comparative fault reduces an award by any share assigned to you, and under Proposition 51 each defendant pays only its share of non-economic damages, which is why every company in the chain belongs in the case.

Two years from the crash under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, or two years from the death in a fatal crash.^[5] If the truck belonged to a city, a county, or Caltrans, a written government claim is due within six months, as our page on claims against California public entities explains.

The evidence runs on a shorter clock. Electronic logging device data, engine control module data, dashcam video, and dispatch records can be overwritten or discarded under routine retention schedules. A preservation letter sent early puts the carrier on notice, as our page on the trucking evidence preservation letter describes.

The two-year deadline is the outer limit; the first two weeks are when the proof is most at risk.