Causes & violations — where truck cases are won.

Driver fatigue and hours-of-service violations rank consistently at the top in FMCSA Large Truck Crash Causation Study data and in Illinois State Police records. Defective brake systems are the most common mechanical cause. Cargo-securement failures concentrate in flatbed operations. Distracted driving, impaired driving, and weather violations fill out the remaining bulk of serious cause-specific crashes.

Violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) establish negligence per se in Illinois — the statute itself defines the standard of care, and a breach is evidence of negligence without needing jury speculation about what a reasonable driver would have done. Ordinary traffic violations are admissible but less forceful as liability theories.

Within 72 hours. ECM data overwrites on an endless loop, ELD records are retained for only six months, dashcam footage is routinely purged in 30 days or less, and dispatch records can disappear without active preservation. Spoliation letters to every potential defendant need to be out the same week as the crash.

Yes, and serious cases almost always involve multiple contributing causes. A fatigued driver may be operating a truck with worn brakes carrying an improperly loaded trailer in bad weather. Each cause triggers its own liability theory and potentially its own defendant — expanding the insurance coverage available to an injured plaintiff.

Negligence per se means that breaking a specific statute designed to prevent the exact harm that occurred is itself evidence of negligence, without needing the jury to decide what a reasonable driver would have done. FMCSR violations qualify. Ordinary negligence requires proving breach of a general duty of care through evidence and expert testimony.