Mobile Truck Accident Lawyer: 18-Wheeler Injury Claims

Eighteen-wheelers move everything that comes through the Port of Mobile, and most of it leaves town on I-10 and I-65. When one of those trucks hits a car, the people in the car get hurt badly, and the trucking company’s insurer is usually working the case before the ambulance leaves. We represent people injured in truck crashes in Mobile and Baldwin County from our office at 411 St. Francis Street, downtown, a few blocks from the courthouse where most of these cases are filed.

A truck case is not a car case with bigger numbers. The driver works under federal hours rules, the carrier keeps records it can delete on a schedule, and there may be three or four companies between the cab and the cargo, each with its own policy. Getting the right ones named, and getting their records before they disappear, is most of the job in the first month.

Why a Truck Crash on I-10 Is Different From a Car Wreck

A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 80,000 pounds. A sedan weighs about 4,000. At highway speed the physics are one-sided, which is why the people in the smaller vehicle account for nearly all of the deaths in truck crashes. ALDOT’s 2024 Crash Facts count 10,183 truck-involved crashes in Alabama that year, with 2,368 injuries and 131 deaths. The two leading causes the report lists are improper lane changes and failure to yield, the same mistakes we see in the Mobile cases that come through our office.

The legal side is different too. A truck driver’s day is governed by 49 C.F.R. Part 395, which caps driving at 11 hours inside a 14-hour window and requires a 30-minute break after eight hours behind the wheel. The carrier has to keep a driver qualification file, drug and alcohol testing records, inspection reports and maintenance logs. Every one of those records is evidence. None of them exists in an ordinary car wreck.

The other difference is who shows up. Large carriers have rapid-response teams, and it is common for an adjuster or a defense investigator to be at the scene within hours photographing the vehicles. If nobody is doing the same work for you, the record of the crash is being written by the other side.

Where Truck Wrecks Happen Around Mobile

Mobile sits where I-10 and I-65 meet, and nearly every container that leaves the port by road starts on one of them. The crash patterns follow the freight.

• The George Wallace Tunnel. I-10 drops under the Mobile River through a 3,000-foot tunnel with a sharp curve on the western approach and no shoulder. Traffic backs up into the tunnel at rush hour, and rear-end collisions involving trucks are the result. Hazmat loads are supposed to detour over the Cochrane–Africatown USA Bridge; when they do not, the stakes go up.
• The I-10/I-65 interchange at Exit 20. I-65 ends here, and the merge from a 70 mph interstate into the I-10 flow produces side-swipe and lane-change crashes with trucks that cannot stop in time.
• The Bayway. Seven and a half miles of elevated roadway over Mobile Bay with four lanes and nowhere to go when a truck jackknifes. The 1995 fog pileup on the Bayway involved roughly 200 vehicles. Fog and rain still cause chain-reaction crashes there.
• Tillman’s Corner, Exit 15. Government Boulevard carries heavy truck traffic to and from the industrial area south of town, and the ramps at Exit 15 are a frequent crash location.
• The port routes. Containers move between APM Terminals and the intermodal yard along Water Street and Broad Street, and drayage trucks cross Government Street and Canal Street all day. These are slow-speed crashes with heavy vehicles, and pedestrians and cyclists downtown are the ones at risk.
• The Bankhead Tunnel. It is limited to cars and pickups, with a 12-foot clearance, and over-height trucks have hit it often enough that ALDOT installed warning sirens. A truck in the wrong tunnel is a negligence case before anything else happens.
• Airport Boulevard, Schillinger Road and Moffett Road. Delivery trucks and dump trucks share these six-lane and five-lane corridors with the heaviest local traffic in the county. Airport Boulevard alone carries close to 60,000 vehicles a day near the University Boulevard intersection.

Construction on the new I-10 Mobile River Bridge began in October 2026 and is expected to run into the next decade. Work zones along the tunnel approaches and the Bayway will change traffic patterns for years, and work-zone crashes with trucks bring in an additional set of defendants: the contractor and the traffic-control company.

Who Can Be Held Liable for a Truck Accident in Alabama

We start every truck case by mapping the chain of companies behind the vehicle. The driver is rarely the only defendant, and often not the one with meaningful insurance.

• The driver, for speeding, distraction, fatigue, impairment or an unsafe lane change.
• The motor carrier, for the driver’s negligence while on the job, and on its own account for negligent hiring, retention, training and supervision, or for pushing schedules that cannot be met inside the hours rules.
• The owner of the tractor or trailer, if a different company, for maintenance failures such as worn brakes, bald tires or a broken coupling.
• The shipper or loader, when an unbalanced or unsecured load shifts and causes a rollover or spill.
• A freight broker, in some cases, for hiring a carrier with a known safety record.
• A parts or vehicle manufacturer, where a defect such as a tire failure or brake malfunction contributed.
• A government body, if road design, signage or a work zone played a part, which brings the short notice deadlines described below.

Port drayage adds a wrinkle. Many of the trucks hauling containers out of the terminal are owner-operators leased to a carrier, and the carrier will sometimes argue the driver was an independent contractor. Under the federal leasing rules the carrier whose name is on the door is responsible for the truck while it is under lease, and we hold them to that.

The Federal Rules That Decide Most Truck Cases

Any truck over 10,001 pounds used in interstate commerce is a commercial motor vehicle under 49 C.F.R. § 390.5T, and its driver and carrier answer to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. The rules that matter most in a crash case:

• Hours of service (49 C.F.R. § 395.3). Eleven hours of driving within a 14-hour on-duty window, a 30-minute break after eight hours of driving, and a 60-hour limit in seven days or 70 hours in eight. A driver who ran past these limits was fatigued by definition, and the electronic logging device required by § 395.8 usually proves it.
• Driver qualification (Part 391). The carrier must verify the driver’s license, medical certificate, driving history and prior employment. A thin file is evidence of negligent hiring.
• Drug and alcohol testing (Part 382). Post-crash testing is mandatory after a fatality, and after an injury or tow-away crash where the driver was cited. A missing test is its own story.
• Inspection and maintenance (Part 396). Daily inspection reports and periodic maintenance records show whether the brakes, lights and tires were in the condition the law requires.
• Minimum insurance (49 C.F.R. § 387.9). At least $750,000 for general freight, $1 million for oil and certain hazardous loads, and $5 million for bulk hazmat and explosives. That is the floor; large carriers often carry $5 million to $10 million in primary and excess coverage.

Alabama has adopted these rules for intrastate carriers as well, so a dump truck that never leaves Mobile County is still held to most of them.

The Evidence We Lock Down in the First Days

Federal rules let a carrier discard most driver logs after six months, and in practice dash camera footage, telematics and engine data get overwritten far sooner. The first thing we do in a truck case is send a written preservation demand to every company in the chain, identifying the records by name so there is no excuse for losing them:

• Electronic logging device data and any paper logs for the 30 days before the crash.
• The engine control module and event data recorder download, which records speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before impact.
• Forward- and driver-facing camera footage, and the telematics data (Samsara, Omnitracs, Motive and similar systems) that shows location, speed and hard-braking events.
• The driver qualification file, hours-of-service audits, prior violations and the post-crash drug and alcohol results.
• Bills of lading, weight tickets and the dispatch records that show what the driver was told about the schedule.
• Maintenance and inspection records for the tractor and the trailer, and the vehicles themselves, which we ask to be held for inspection before repair or salvage.

On our side, we pull the Mobile Police Department or ALEA crash report, canvass for private cameras along the route, and where the injuries justify it, retain a reconstruction engineer to map the scene before the skid marks fade. Mobile PD reports can be ordered online or from the Records Unit on Government Boulevard for $15. Trooper-worked crashes on the interstates go through ALEA.

Contributory Negligence: The Rule That Decides Alabama Truck Cases

Alabama is one of a handful of states that still follows pure contributory negligence. If the defense convinces a jury that you were negligent and that your negligence contributed to the crash, even a little, you recover nothing. The Alabama Supreme Court has applied that rule for decades (Brown v. Piggly-Wiggly Stores, 454 So. 2d 1370 (Ala. 1984)), and trucking defense firms build their cases around it.

In a truck case the usual version is that you were in the truck’s blind spot, that you merged too close, or that you were speeding when the truck changed lanes. The answer is evidence, not argument. The truck’s own camera and telematics frequently show the truck drifting or the driver looking down. Where they do not, a reconstruction based on the physical evidence usually settles the question. We do not recommend giving a recorded statement to the carrier’s insurer, because the questions are designed to produce the one percent.

Two exceptions help injured people. Contributory negligence is not a defense to wantonness, which is conduct done with reckless disregard for the consequences, and a driver who falsified logs or drove impaired can meet that standard. And a plaintiff’s negligence that did not actually contribute to the crash is no defense at all.

Deadlines for a Mobile Truck Accident Claim

• Injury claims: two years from the date of the crash. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l).
• Wrongful death: two years from the date of death, filed by the personal representative of the estate. Ala. Code § 6-5-410.
• City vehicles and city road defects: a sworn claim must be presented to the city within six months. Ala. Code § 11-47-23. That covers a garbage truck, a city dump truck or a Wave Transit bus.
• County vehicles: claims must be presented within twelve months. Ala. Code § 11-12-8.
• Evidence: no statute, but the practical deadline is the shortest of all. Carriers may lawfully destroy logs after six months, and footage is typically gone in weeks.

Claims for minors and some claims involving the federal government run on different clocks. If there is any question, call before the dates get close rather than after.

What a Truck Accident Case Is Worth in Alabama

There is no formula, and anyone quoting you a number before reading your medical records is guessing. What we can tell you is what the law allows and what moves the number.

Alabama does not cap compensatory damages in injury cases. A verdict can include every medical bill, past and future; lost wages and lost earning capacity; the cost of care at home; and the pain, disfigurement and loss of enjoyment of life that a serious crash causes. Punitive damages are available for wanton conduct and are capped at the greater of $1.5 million or three times compensatory damages under Ala. Code § 6-11-21, except in wrongful death cases, where no cap applies.

What moves the number in a truck case is the severity and permanence of the injury, the clarity of the fault evidence, and the layers of insurance available. A crash with a clean liability picture, a $5 million policy and a spinal cord injury is valued very differently from a soft-tissue case against a minimum-limits local hauler. Our job is to establish the first two and find the third.

Wrongful Death After a Truck Crash

Alabama’s wrongful death statute is unlike any other state’s. Damages under Ala. Code § 6-5-410 are entirely punitive: the jury is asked to set an amount that punishes the wrongdoing and deters it, not to total up the family’s financial loss. The claim is filed by the personal representative of the estate within two years of the death, and the recovery passes to the heirs outside the estate, free of the deceased’s debts.

Because the measure is the defendant’s conduct, the records described above matter even more in a death case. Falsified logs, a driver who should never have been hired, or a carrier that ignored out-of-service orders are what the jury will be asked to weigh. We have handled truck wrongful death cases across Alabama and understand what that proof looks like.

What to Do After a Truck Accident in Mobile

1. Get medical care the same day. USA Health University Hospital is the region’s only Level I trauma center. Mobile Infirmary, Providence and Springhill handle most other emergencies. Injuries from a truck crash often present a day or two later, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster looks for.
2. Make sure a report is written. Mobile PD inside the city, the sheriff’s office in the county, ALEA on the interstates. Get the report number before you leave.
3. Photograph everything you safely can, including the truck’s DOT number and the carrier name on the door, the trailer number, the load, and the road and weather.
4. Get names of witnesses. Other drivers leave once the road clears, and the carrier’s investigator will not be looking for them.
5. Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company’s insurer, and do not sign anything. Report the crash to your own insurer, but keep it to the basic facts.
6. Keep your vehicle. Do not let it be scrapped until it has been inspected. The damage pattern is evidence.
7. Call a lawyer early. The preservation letter is the most time-sensitive step in the case, and it has to go out before the records cycle.

Where Your Case Is Filed

Crashes in the city or county are filed in the Mobile County Circuit Court at Government Plaza, 205 Government Street, a short walk from our office. Crashes on the Eastern Shore or along I-10 in Baldwin County go to the Baldwin County Circuit Court in Bay Minette. When the carrier is based out of state, which is most of the time, it will usually remove the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama on St. Joseph Street. We try cases in all three, and the choice of forum is something we plan for when the complaint is drafted rather than after the defense makes its move.

How We Handle Truck Cases From Our Mobile Office

Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers has recovered more than $100 million for injured people across Alabama, and truck and commercial vehicle cases are a core part of that work. We staff our Mobile cases from 411 St. Francis Street and bring the firm’s statewide resources with us: reconstruction engineers, trucking-industry experts who can read a driver qualification file, and the ability to advance the costs a serious truck case requires.

You pay nothing up front. Our fee comes out of the recovery, and if there is no recovery there is no fee. Consultations are free and confidential, and we will tell you plainly if we think the case is not worth pursuing.

Mobile Truck Accident Questions, Answered

How long do I have to file a truck accident lawsuit in Alabama?

Two years from the crash for an injury claim and two years from the death for a wrongful death claim. If a city or county vehicle was involved, a notice of claim must be presented within six months to a city or twelve months to a county, or the claim is lost regardless of the two-year limit.

Can I sue the trucking company, or only the driver?

Usually both. The carrier is responsible for its driver’s negligence on the job, and it can be independently liable for negligent hiring, training or supervision, for maintenance failures, and for schedules that violate the hours-of-service rules. The shipper, the loader and the trailer owner may also be defendants depending on what caused the crash.

The insurance adjuster already called me. Should I talk to them?

Not on the record, and not before you have spoken with a lawyer. Alabama’s contributory negligence rule means a single admission, even a polite one, can be used to argue you share the fault and recover nothing. Give them your name and your lawyer’s number.

What if the truck driver was an independent contractor?

It rarely changes the result. Under the federal leasing regulations, the motor carrier whose authority the truck was operating under is responsible for it, and Alabama courts look at who controlled the work, not what the contract called the driver. Owner-operators hauling out of the port are typically leased to a carrier that remains on the hook.

How much does a Mobile truck accident lawyer cost?

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and we advance the case expenses. If we do not recover anything, you owe us nothing.

Will my case be filed in Mobile or in federal court?

We file in the Mobile County Circuit Court when the facts support it. An out-of-state carrier will often move the case to the federal court in Mobile, the Southern District of Alabama, which is also downtown. Either way the case is tried here, in front of a Mobile jury, and we are in both courthouses regularly.

Related Practice Areas

• Mobile Personal Injury Lawyers
• Alabama Truck Accident Lawyer
• Mobile Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
• Alabama Wrongful Death Lawyer
• How to Get Your Mobile Accident Report

Talk to a Mobile Truck Accident Lawyer

If you or someone in your family was hurt in a crash with a tractor-trailer, delivery truck, dump truck or other commercial vehicle in Mobile or Baldwin County, call (251) 501-4232 or (205) 407-6009. Our Mobile office is at 411 St. Francis Street, Mobile, AL 36602. The consultation is free, and the preservation letter can go out the same day.