SUGAR LAND, Texas. The León Law Firm has published a guide identifying the nine most common ways an 18-wheeler accident happens in Texas, and why the specific type of crash often points investigators toward who is responsible.
A jackknife, where a trailer swings out and folds against the cab, usually points back to hard braking, an empty trailer, or worn brakes. A rollover often traces back to speed on a curve or an unbalanced load, while a wide-turn collision, sometimes called a squeeze play, typically comes down to whether a driver checked mirrors before swinging left to make a right turn.
The guide also covers underride and override crashes, where a smaller vehicle slides beneath a trailer or a truck climbs over one, along with rear-end collisions, blind-spot accidents, tire blowouts, lost or shifting loads, and head-on collisions. Each pattern tends to raise different questions about evidence, according to the firm, from a truck's maintenance records in a tire blowout case to a driver's hours-of-service logs in a rear-end crash tied to fatigue.
That distinction matters because liability in a truck accident case doesn't always rest with the driver alone. The trucking company can be held responsible for a driver's negligence under Texas law when the driver was on the clock at the time of a crash, and the company can also face liability of its own for decisions like hiring or scheduling practices that contributed to a crash.
The guide notes that Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule, meaning an injured person's compensation can be reduced by their share of fault in a crash and eliminated entirely if they are found more than half responsible. Because of that, the firm says identifying the specific crash type early on often shapes what evidence gets requested and from whom.
The full guide is available at https://theleonlawfirm.com/types-of-18-wheeler-accidents-in-texas/, and more on the firm's truck accident practice, including its broader vehicle accident work, is available at https://theleonlawfirm.com/18-wheeler-accident-lawyer/ and https://theleonlawfirm.com/vehicle-accident-lawyers/.
About The León Law Firm: The León Law Firm, P.C. is a Sugar Land, Texas personal injury firm representing accident and injury victims statewide, with bilingual representation in English and Spanish. More information is available at https://theleonlawfirm.com/about-law-firm/.