Wichita Truck Accident Lawyer

Why are large truck accidents confusing and complex? Because the truck driver and the trucking company operate under specialized safety regulations and safety systems. Understanding the FMCSR takes real study, and proving violations often requires fast evidence preservation.

Whether the truck driver or motor carrier is at fault often requires immediate evaluation of the crash scene and the truck's electronic systems (including tractor ECM/"black box" data where available). Trucking insurers and defense lawyers may begin a post-crash investigation quickly and can arrive at the scene within hours. That is why it helps to have a truck accident lawyer who can act quickly to protect evidence and your rights.

At Bull Attorneys, our immediate actions may include hiring accident reconstruction and trucking safety experts, preserving electronic and paper records, and analyzing safety-rule compliance to determine the root cause of the crash.

DOT-licensed motor carriers complete federal application materials and certify they will comply with federal safety rules. In practice, this means a trucking company should have real systems in place to follow the FMCSR and related safety requirements.

In our trucking cases, we look for whether the motor carrier had and followed systems to:

• Ensure compliance with DOT regulations and the FMCSR, including safe operation rules.
• Maintain and produce required safety materials and policies (including hazardous materials rules when applicable).
• Maintain an accident register for crashes and incidents involving property damage or bodily injury.
• Ensure drivers are qualified under FMCSR Part 391 (driver qualification files).
• Comply with hours-of-service limits and log requirements (e.g., Parts 392 and 395), and maintenance/inspection requirements (Part 396).
• Comply with drug and alcohol testing requirements (Parts 382 and 40).

Why this matters to ordinary drivers: when a motor carrier does not build and enforce real safety systems, crashes become more likely. And when safety systems are missing or ignored, liability can be easier to prove and the value of an injury claim may increase.

• Hiring unsafe or unqualified drivers: Motor carriers must qualify drivers under FMCSR Part 391. High turnover can lead to rushed hiring. When companies skip proper background checks, driving history review, or prior safety history, preventable crashes happen.
• Failure to provide entry-level training and supervision: The trucking industry has training requirements and best practices. Some carriers rely on a CDL alone without meaningful orientation, coaching, and testing. When training and supervision are weak, unsafe driving becomes predictable.
• Hours-of-service and fatigue violations: The FMCSR limits driving time to reduce fatigue. When companies impose unrealistic schedules and on-time delivery pressure, drivers may exceed legal hours, falsify logs, or drive exhausted.
• Improper maintenance and inspection failures: The driver and the company must inspect and maintain the tractor and trailer. Brake, tire, lighting, and trailer defects can turn a near-miss into a catastrophic crash.

Commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) operate under rules enforced by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). In serious truck crashes, the key question is often not only what the driver did, but what the motor carrier did—or failed to do—before the wreck.

Truck accident cases can require obtaining safety records, electronic data, logs, training files, and maintenance history. This is one reason truck crashes are different from ordinary car accidents.

The FMCSR are written safety rules for truck drivers and motor carriers. Under FMCSR provisions such as Part 390.3, carriers and drivers are expected to understand and follow applicable safety regulations. Motor carrier responsibility can extend beyond the driver to the company's hiring, training, supervision, assignment, and dispatch decisions.

Federal law also provides tools for accountability when safety violations cause harm. For example, 49 U.S.C. § 14704(a)(2) addresses damages arising from violations, and 49 U.S.C. § 14101(a) addresses a motor carrier's duty to provide safe and adequate service, equipment, and facilities.

Many business vehicles and heavy equipment operations can also trigger FMCSR coverage depending on weight, passenger count, and use. After a severe semi-truck collision, your lawyer must be able to prove negligence by the driver, the motor carrier, or both.

The FMCSR prescribe minimum safety standards for trucking companies and commercial drivers. When a carrier violates these standards, that violation can support liability in an injury case.

The regulations also require companies to instruct and manage drivers and employees on DOT safety rules. In truck accident litigation, understanding these rules can make the difference between a weak claim and a strong claim.

Crashes, injuries, and wrongful deaths often occur when drivers are not trained, supervised, or scheduled safely. A major focus in our cases is whether the motor carrier failed to train drivers in safe practices and defensive driving methods, such as hazard recognition and space management.

The FMCSA was established in 2000 with the goal of reducing crashes and fatalities. In real cases, we see recurring patterns: rushed schedules, fatigue, poor maintenance, and weak safety culture.

Bull Attorneys' trucking cases are managed with a safety-focused approach, informed by years of litigation against motor carriers, including depositions of drivers and safety leadership.

Truck drivers must have required knowledge to safely operate a tractor-trailer: the use of lights, horns, mirrors, emergency procedures, basic control maneuvers, and safe backing and turning. A strong trucking case often examines whether the carrier ensured the driver actually had this knowledge.

Safety areas commonly involved include:

• Maintenance and repair knowledge for tractors and trailers.
• Safe operation procedures and vehicle control systems.
• Basic maneuvers: starting, stopping, backing, turning, and shifting.
• Emergency maneuvers and skid control.
• Night driving risks (vision, glare, fatigue, inexperience).
• Visual search techniques, blind-spot management, signaling, and lane-change communication.
• Hazard recognition in bad weather and hazardous conditions.
• Understanding the dangers of alcohol, drugs, and impaired driving.
• Hazardous materials awareness and special driving conditions (including mountain driving when applicable).
• Fatigue awareness and safe decision-making.

"On-time delivery" requirements are one of the most controversial issues in commercial trucking. When drivers are rewarded or punished based on delivery times, it can encourage speeding and unsafe hours.

These policies may penalize drivers for delays. If evidence shows a driver was threatened with discipline, fines, suspension, or termination for late delivery, that can be powerful proof of unsafe scheduling and may support higher compensation.

Pushing drivers to deliver "on time" can lead to:

• Hours-of-service violations and log irregularities.
• Speeding to meet deadlines.
• Driving while extremely tired or exhausted.
• Leaving a crash scene or failing to stop, in extreme cases.
• More severe crashes that cause traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and wrongful death.

Experienced truck accident attorneys use FMCSR Part 396.3(a), which requires motor carriers to systematically inspect, repair, and maintain their commercial motor vehicles. A truck must have safe tires, brakes, and functioning safety equipment.

Truck drivers are required to conduct daily inspections before leaving, during the day, and at the end of the day. When drivers are fatigued and under pressure, inspections are often skipped or rushed.

FMCSR Part 396.7 prohibits operating a commercial motor vehicle when it is in a condition likely to cause an accident or breakdown. Part 396.11 addresses driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) and documenting daily inspections.

Brake problems are a known contributor to rear-end and loss-of-control crashes. In serious cases, we examine maintenance records, inspection history, and repair delays.

Many trucking companies and drivers violate FMCSR Part 392.14 on hazardous conditions. Drivers must reduce speed in hazardous conditions like snow, ice, sleet, high winds, fog, and smoke. When conditions become sufficiently dangerous, operations should stop until it is safe.

In Wichita, Garden City, and across Kansas, high winds can cause catastrophic semi-truck crashes, including cross-centerline collisions when trailers are pushed by wind.

We examine weather warnings, dispatch decisions, speed, and route choices to determine if the carrier should have stopped operations.

Night operations create additional hazards: glare, reduced visibility, fatigue, and inexperience. Training and supervision should address nighttime space management, vision, and proper lighting use.

The FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program utilizes "BASIC categories" to monitor patterns of unsafe behavior and compliance issues. These categories are used to compare a motor carrier's performance against industry peers and to pinpoint risk trends.

The seven CSA BASICs are:

• Unsafe Driving
• Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance
• Driver Fitness
• Controlled Substances/Alcohol
• Vehicle Maintenance
• Hazardous Materials (HazMat) Compliance
• Crash Indicator

Unsafe Driving behaviors include speeding, improper lane changes, reckless driving, inattention, and illegal handheld phone use.

Truck accident attorneys can, in appropriate cases, request motor carrier safety information through lawful processes (such as public records requests) to assess compliance trends.

ANSI/ASSP Z15.1 is a standard designed to prevent crashes involving company vehicles by setting clear safety rules for how businesses operate cars, trucks, and fleets on public roads. It is a "road-safety playbook for companies—not just drivers."

The purpose of ANSI/ASSP Z15.1 is to:

• Reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths caused by work-related driving.
• Hold companies accountable for how they hire, train, supervise, and manage drivers.
• Prevent predictable accidents before they happen—not just react afterward.
• Create safer driving systems instead of relying on "driver mistake" excuses.

ANSI/ASSP Z15.1 focuses on safety systems such as:

• Driver selection and qualification
• Training and supervision
• Fatigue management and hours control
• Vehicle inspection, maintenance, and repair
• Crash investigation and preventability analysis
• Management responsibility for safety—not just the driver

Why it matters:

ANSI/ASSP Z15.1 can help demonstrate preventability in crashes involving company vehicles if a company failed in areas like driver training, fatigue risk management, safety audits, or having a safety plan. This can support corporate negligence over just driver error.

For injury victims, this standard can shift focus from "driver messed up" to "company failed to manage safety," potentially leading to higher compensation and reinforcing the Doctrine of Preventability if basic safety practices were not followed.