What a Trucking Company Should Do Immediately After an MVA

Commercial Trucking  ·  September 2025  ·  9 min read

When one of your trucks is involved in an accident, the clock starts immediately — for your insurer, for the injured party's attorney, and for the evidence your company needs to protect itself. This is the protocol every carrier should have in place before an accident happens.

Why the First 24 Hours Are the Most Important

The moment a commercial truck is involved in an accident, multiple adverse parties begin building their case. The injured party's attorney may be on scene within hours. The other driver's insurer starts investigating. Plaintiffs' firms have rapid-response investigators specifically for trucking accidents — they know what evidence exists, where it lives, and how quickly it disappears.

Your company needs to be moving just as fast, and in the right direction. The decisions made in the first 24 hours shape every aspect of what follows — from your exposure in litigation to your relationship with your insurer to the outcome of any regulatory investigation.

Step 1: Ensure Your Driver Is Safe and Receives Medical Attention

Your driver's wellbeing comes first. Make sure emergency services have been called and your driver is receiving appropriate medical care. Document any injuries to your driver. This is not only the right thing to do — it's also part of your recordkeeping obligation under FMCSA regulations.

Step 2: Notify Your Insurer Immediately

Your commercial auto policy almost certainly requires prompt notice of accidents. Delayed notification can give the insurer grounds to contest coverage. Call your insurance broker or carrier as soon as possible, provide the basic facts, and let them know you are also notifying your attorney.

Step 3: Contact Your Attorney Before Giving Any Statements

This step happens simultaneously with insurer notification — not after. Your driver should not give a recorded statement to anyone — including your own insurer, the other party's insurer, or law enforcement (beyond what is legally required at the scene) — without legal counsel present or explicit approval from your attorney.

Statements made in the immediate aftermath of an accident, before the full facts are known, routinely become the most damaging evidence in subsequent litigation. Lock down all communications through counsel from the beginning.

Step 4: Preserve All Electronic Data — Immediately

Your truck is a data-generating machine. The following data exists and is time-sensitive:

• Electronic Logging Device (ELD) — hours of service, on-duty and driving time, location data. Most ELDs retain 6 months of data, but synchronization and download should happen immediately.
• Engine Control Module (ECM) / "Black Box" — speed at time of impact, braking events, throttle position, cruise control status. This data can be overwritten by continued operation of the vehicle.
• Dashcam footage — both forward-facing and driver-facing. Download and secure immediately. Most systems loop and overwrite within days.
• GPS/telematics data — route history, speed history, stop events.
• Driver's phone records — with driver consent, preserve records that may establish no distracted driving.

Issue a written litigation hold notice to all employees and vendors who may have relevant information. This protects you from spoliation claims if litigation follows.

Step 5: Secure the Vehicle — Do Not Repair It Yet

The involved vehicle is evidence. Do not repair it, clean it, or return it to service until your attorney has confirmed that all inspections — including any inspection requested by the injured party — have been completed. Repairing or altering a vehicle before the other side has had an opportunity to inspect it can result in serious evidentiary sanctions in litigation.

Place the vehicle in a secured lot. Photograph the vehicle thoroughly — all four sides, all damage, tires, brakes, lights, cargo area. Retain those photographs.

Step 6: Pull and Preserve Driver Records

Pull and secure your driver's qualification file immediately. This includes:

• Commercial Driver's License and current medical certificate
• Pre-employment screening program results
• Drug and alcohol testing records
• Prior accident and violation history
• Training records
• Hours of service logs for the preceding 8 days (minimum)

You need to know what is in this file before adverse counsel does. If there are issues — prior violations, testing gaps, certification lapses — your attorney needs to know about them now, not when they surface in discovery.

Step 7: Pull and Preserve Maintenance Records

Gather all maintenance records for the involved vehicle. This includes:

• The most recent annual inspection
• All repair orders from the preceding 12 months
• Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs) — including any defects noted by the driver prior to the accident
• Brake inspection and adjustment records
• Tire records

If a maintenance shop performed recent work on the vehicle, preserve those records and hold them as potential evidence — or as potential defendants, if their work was defective.

Step 8: Document the Scene If Possible

If your driver is physically able and it is safe to do so, photograph the accident scene before vehicles are moved. Photograph road conditions, weather, signage, skid marks, debris field, and the positions of all vehicles. If your driver cannot do this, dispatch someone who can get there quickly.

Identify any surveillance cameras at nearby businesses that may have captured the accident. Contact those businesses promptly — footage is typically overwritten within 24–72 hours.

Step 9: Conduct a Post-Accident Drug and Alcohol Test

FMCSA regulations require post-accident drug and alcohol testing following any accident involving a fatality, or any accident involving a citation to the CMV driver where someone required immediate medical treatment away from the scene or a vehicle required towing. The alcohol test must occur within 8 hours; the drug test within 32 hours. Missing these windows creates regulatory exposure and adverse inference risk in litigation.

If testing is required, do not delay. If there is any question whether testing is required, test anyway.

Step 10: Prepare Your Witness List

Identify every employee, contractor, or vendor who may have relevant knowledge: dispatchers who communicated with the driver that day, maintenance personnel who worked on the vehicle, supervisors, co-drivers. Interview them while memories are fresh and preserve their accounts. Your attorney may want to take formal statements from key witnesses before they become unavailable.

The Bottom Line: Have a Protocol Before You Need It

The companies that handle post-accident situations best are the ones that had a written protocol in place before anything happened — with clear roles, direct lines to counsel and insurers, and employees who have been trained on what to do and what not to say. If your company doesn't have that protocol, developing it now is one of the highest-ROI investments you can make.

The Metyko Law Firm works with commercial carriers on accident response, documentation protocols, and driver training — as well as defending and prosecuting trucking litigation when it arises. Call us to discuss your company's exposure and preparedness.