A U-Haul truck accident in or around Wichita Falls can change your life in an instant. These large moving trucks weigh thousands of pounds, and when they collide with passenger vehicles on roads like US Highway 277 or US-82 near the Wichita Falls area, the damage is often severe. If you or someone you love was hurt in a U-Haul truck accident, Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys in Denton, Texas is ready to fight for the compensation you deserve. Our firm serves injured people across North Texas, and we handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Call us today at (940) 800-2500. Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys is responsible for this content, with its principal office located in Denton, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U-Haul trucks are far larger and heavier than the average passenger car, and that size difference causes serious injuries in crashes. A fully loaded U-Haul box truck can weigh well over 10,000 pounds, yet U-Haul does not require renters to hold a commercial driver’s license. That gap between vehicle size and driver training is one of the biggest risk factors on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to U-Haul’s own rental policies, anyone with a standard government-issued driver’s license and a minimum age of 18 can walk out with the keys to a 26-foot truck. That means someone who has never driven anything larger than a pickup truck can legally rent a massive moving vehicle and take it onto Kemp Boulevard, Kell Freeway, or any other busy corridor in the Wichita Falls area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The roads around Wichita Falls present real hazards for oversized rental trucks. US-287, which connects Wichita Falls to the Denton and Fort Worth metro area, carries heavy commercial and commuter traffic. Narrow county roads in rural Wichita County are not designed for vehicles of this size. When a U-Haul driver misjudges a turn or fails to keep a safe following distance, the results can include rear-end collisions, rollovers, and head-on crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Texas Transportation Code Section 545.351, every driver must operate at a speed that is “reasonable and prudent” given the conditions. A person unfamiliar with a large rental truck’s braking distance and blind spots is far more likely to violate that standard. Injuries from these crashes are often severe, including traumatic brain injuries, spinal fractures, broken bones, and internal bleeding, all of which require long hospital stays and months of rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) found that in 56 percent of all daily rental truck crashes, the “critical reason” for the collision stemmed from another vehicle, a driver, or the road environment, not the driver of the U-Haul vehicle. Even so, every crash deserves a full investigation to identify who bears legal responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liability in a U-Haul truck accident can fall on more than one party. Identifying every responsible party is essential to recovering full compensation for your injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The driver of the U-Haul is often the first person to examine. If that driver violated Texas Transportation Code Section 545.401, which prohibits reckless driving, or if they were distracted, fatigued, or impaired, they bear personal responsibility for the crash. Their personal auto insurance policy may apply, though many standard personal auto policies contain exclusions for rental trucks above a certain weight threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U-Haul itself can also face direct liability in certain situations. A rental company has a legal duty to maintain its fleet in safe operating condition. When a crash results from faulty brakes, underinflated tires, or a steering malfunction that proper maintenance would have prevented, U-Haul may be held responsible for those failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one FMCSA study, researchers examined how many daily rental trucks received federal inspections in one seven-year period and how many were placed “out of service” until a dangerous defect could be repaired. With an out-of-service rate of 8.7 percent, U-Haul had the second-highest rate of out-of-service vehicles among the five companies studied. A poorly maintained truck that causes a crash creates a direct path to holding U-Haul accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third parties can also share liability. A negligent cargo loader who caused a dangerous weight shift, or a government entity that failed to maintain a road near Lake Wichita Park or along Southwest Parkway, could each bear a portion of fault. Texas uses a proportionate responsibility system under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33, which means each responsible party pays according to their percentage of fault. You can still recover damages as long as your own share of fault does not exceed 50 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Graves Amendment is a federal law, codified at 49 U.S.C. \u00a7 30106, that limits when a vehicle rental company can be held liable simply for renting a vehicle. Under this law, a rental company like U-Haul cannot be sued purely because it rented the truck to someone who caused an accident. The law was designed to protect rental companies from automatic liability based solely on vehicle ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Graves Amendment does not protect U-Haul from liability for its own negligence. If U-Haul failed to properly maintain the truck, rented a vehicle it knew had a dangerous defect, or ignored safety standards, those claims fall outside the Graves Amendment’s protection. The rental company remains fully exposed to liability for its own wrongful acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the federal agency that oversees commercial vehicle safety, requires that vehicles be properly inspected and maintained. When U-Haul skips or delays required maintenance on a truck that then causes a crash near Sheppard Air Force Base or on the US-281 corridor, that failure can serve as direct evidence of negligence, independent of who was driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FMCSA’s Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) system is a public database that allows anyone to look up a carrier’s inspection history, violations, and crash data. Pulling U-Haul’s records through the SAFER system can reveal patterns of maintenance failures that support your claim. This is one of the first steps a thorough investigation should include.<\/p>\n\n\n\n