Hit by a Truck in Denver?

Truck accidents are among the most devastating types of crashes. A fully loaded commercial truck can weigh 80,000 pounds — roughly 20 times the weight of a passenger car. The physics of these collisions produce catastrophic injuries: traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, crushed limbs, internal organ damage, and severe burns.

Call 911 immediately. Colorado law (C.R.S. § 42-4-1606) requires reporting any accident involving injury, death, or property damage exceeding $1,000. Given the size disparity between trucks and passenger vehicles, virtually every truck accident meets this threshold. Law enforcement and emergency medical services will respond, and the crash report will be critical evidence for your claim.

Do not refuse medical transport. Even if you feel functional at the scene, adrenaline masks serious injuries. Truck accident victims frequently discover spinal fractures, internal bleeding, and traumatic brain injuries hours or days after the crash. Denver Health Medical Center at 777 Bannock Street is Denver's primary Level I trauma center, admitting over 3,000 trauma patients annually. UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus is a second Level I facility equipped for the most severe injuries.

If you are physically able, photograph everything: the truck (including the company name, DOT number, and license plate), all vehicles involved, the road and intersection, traffic signals, skid marks, debris, cargo spills, weather conditions, and your injuries. The DOT number on the side of the truck is essential — it identifies the trucking company in FMCSA databases and unlocks their inspection history, crash records, and safety ratings.

Get the truck driver's name, their employer's name, their insurance information, and their driver's license number. If there are witnesses, ask for their names and phone numbers. In a truck accident, witness testimony about the truck's speed, lane changes, or whether the driver appeared fatigued can be decisive.

Do not discuss fault with the truck driver, their company, or their insurance representatives. Trucking companies often dispatch rapid-response teams to accident scenes within hours — investigators, adjusters, and even attorneys. Their job is to protect the company. Anything you say can be used to argue you share fault under Colorado's comparative negligence rule.

Truck accident cases depend on evidence that doesn't exist in car-on-car crashes — and much of it disappears quickly if not preserved. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations require commercial trucks to carry electronic logging devices (ELDs) that record the driver's hours of service, speed, braking patterns, and location data. This "black box" data is overwritten regularly, sometimes within 30 days.

Other critical evidence includes the driver's daily log books and ELD records (were they in compliance with FMCSA hours-of-service limits?), the driver's qualification file (were they properly licensed and trained?), vehicle inspection and maintenance records (was the truck mechanically sound?), cargo loading records (was the truck overloaded or improperly loaded?), the trucking company's safety record (do they have a pattern of violations?), and any dashcam or GPS data from the truck.

An attorney experienced in truck accident litigation can send a spoliation letter to the trucking company within days of the accident, legally requiring them to preserve all evidence. Without this letter, critical data may be routinely destroyed per company policy. Time is the most important factor in a truck accident case.

Unlike a car accident where liability usually falls on one driver, truck accidents often involve multiple liable parties. The truck driver may be at fault for fatigue, distraction, speeding, or impairment. The trucking company may be liable under respondeat superior (employer liability for employee actions) or for their own negligence — hiring unqualified drivers, pressuring drivers to exceed hours-of-service limits, or failing to maintain vehicles.

The cargo loading company may be liable if improperly loaded or unsecured cargo caused the accident — a common factor on I-70's mountain corridor where shifting loads cause rollovers on steep grades. The truck or parts manufacturer may be liable if a mechanical defect caused the crash — tire blowouts, brake failures, and steering system defects are not uncommon. FMCSA data indicates that driver-related factors were involved in 86% of fatal truck accidents nationally.

Each liable party carries separate insurance, and trucking companies are required to carry significantly higher coverage — federal regulations require minimum coverage of $750,000 to $5 million depending on cargo type. Identifying all liable parties is essential to recovering full compensation.

After a truck accident, you may be contacted by multiple insurance companies — the truck driver's personal insurer, the trucking company's commercial liability insurer, and possibly cargo or broker insurers. None of them are on your side. Their adjusters are trained to get you to say things that can be used to reduce or deny your claim.

You are not legally required to give any of them a recorded statement. The trucking company's insurer in particular will move quickly and aggressively. They know their potential exposure is large — truck accident settlements and verdicts are routinely in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Early lowball offers are common. Do not accept any settlement before you know the full extent of your injuries and before an attorney has evaluated your case.

Colorado follows modified comparative negligence (C.R.S. § 13-21-111). If the insurance company can establish that you were 50% or more at fault, your entire claim is barred. Even partial fault reduces your recovery. Professional legal representation is particularly important in truck accident cases because of the resources trucking companies deploy to shift blame.

Under C.R.S. § 13-80-101, you have three years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit in Colorado. For wrongful death claims arising from a truck accident, the deadline is just 2 years from the date of death (C.R.S. § 13-21-204).

If the truck was operated by or on behalf of a government entity — CDOT vehicles, municipal trucks, government contractors — the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. § 24-10-109) requires written notice within 182 days. This 6-month deadline is one of the most commonly missed deadlines in Colorado personal injury law and cannot be extended.

While the statute of limitations gives you three years to file suit, the practical deadline for a truck accident is much sooner. ELD data, dashcam footage, and driver logs can be overwritten or destroyed within weeks. Vehicle inspection records may be discarded. Witnesses' memories fade. An attorney needs to send preservation letters and begin investigation within days — not months — of the accident.

Truck accident injuries are typically more severe than car accident injuries due to the forces involved. Common injuries include traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and paralysis, multiple fractures, internal organ damage, severe lacerations, and burns. Many of these require extended treatment, surgeries, and rehabilitation.

Follow every treatment recommendation from your doctors. Attend every appointment. Complete every prescribed course of physical therapy. Gaps in treatment give the insurance company ammunition to argue your injuries aren't as serious as you claim — or that they were caused by something other than the truck accident.

Keep meticulous records of every medical visit, prescription, imaging study, therapy session, and out-of-pocket expense. Also document how your injuries affect your daily life — days missed from work, activities you can no longer do, pain levels, sleep disruption. These details directly impact your compensation for non-economic damages like pain and suffering.

Truck accident cases are fundamentally different from car accident cases. They involve federal FMCSA regulations, multiple potentially liable parties with separate insurance policies, rapid evidence destruction, and well-funded defense teams deployed by trucking companies. Handling a truck accident claim without experienced legal representation puts you at a severe disadvantage.

An experienced Denver truck accident attorney can immediately send spoliation letters to preserve black box data and driver logs, identify all liable parties and their insurance coverage, retain accident reconstruction experts, navigate federal trucking regulations, and negotiate with sophisticated commercial insurance adjusters who handle high-value claims for a living.

Initial consultations are free, and truck accident attorneys work on contingency — you pay nothing unless they recover compensation for you. Given the severity of truck accident injuries and the complexity of the legal landscape, professional representation is not a luxury — it is essential to protecting your rights and your financial future.