Injured in a Truck Accident in Pittsburgh?

If you can move without risking further injury, get yourself and any passengers away from traffic and the truck. Pittsburgh's highway geography makes secondary collisions a serious danger — the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, Fort Pitt Tunnel, and Liberty Tunnel carry high-speed traffic through narrow corridors with minimal shoulders. A disabled truck in or near a tunnel can back up traffic for miles and create chain-reaction crashes.

Call 911 immediately. In Allegheny County, your call will be routed to the appropriate agency — City of Pittsburgh Police, Allegheny County Police, or Pennsylvania State Police depending on your location. For crashes on the interstates, State Police typically respond. Tell the dispatcher that a commercial truck is involved — this often results in additional units and may trigger a commercial vehicle inspection at the scene.

Pennsylvania law requires you to report any accident involving injury, death, or property damage (75 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3746). With a truck crash, you will almost always meet that threshold. Do not leave the scene, even if you feel fine. Adrenaline can mask serious injuries for hours.

Truck accident cases are more complex than typical car crashes because multiple parties may share liability — the driver, the trucking company, the cargo loader, or a maintenance contractor. The evidence you collect now can be critical later.

Take photos and video of the truck (including its DOT number and company name on the cab or trailer), the damage to all vehicles, skid marks, debris, road conditions, traffic signals, and the surrounding area. Get the truck driver's name, commercial driver's license (CDL) number, employer information, and insurance details. If there are witnesses, ask for their names and phone numbers.

Pay special attention to the truck's license plates — commercial trucks often carry plates from multiple states. Write down or photograph the USDOT number and MC number displayed on the truck. These numbers allow investigators to pull the carrier's safety record, inspection history, and insurance information from the FMCSA's SAFER database. Pittsburgh's position as a freight crossroads means many trucks passing through are registered out of state.

The force in a truck crash is devastating. A fully loaded semi weighs up to 80,000 pounds — roughly 20 to 30 times more than your car. Even at 35 mph, that kind of mass can cause traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, internal bleeding, and organ damage that may not produce symptoms right away.

Get to the nearest emergency room. Pittsburgh has three adult Level I Trauma Centers — more than most cities its size: UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Mercy, and Allegheny General Hospital (Allegheny Health Network). For life-threatening injuries, request transport to one of these facilities. UPMC Shadyside and St. Clair Hospital provide additional emergency and urgent care options throughout the metro area.

Tell the medical team you were in a truck accident. Ask them to document all injuries, imaging, and treatment in detail. This medical record is one of the most important pieces of evidence if you pursue a claim. Follow up with your primary care doctor within a few days, even if you were released from the ER.

This is where truck accident cases differ most from car accidents. Commercial trucks are heavily regulated, and they generate a long trail of records that can prove negligence — but some of this evidence can be destroyed or overwritten within days if nobody steps in to preserve it.

Key evidence in truck cases includes the truck's electronic logging device (ELD) data, which records driving hours and rest breaks under federal Hours of Service regulations. Drivers are limited to 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window, with a mandatory 30-minute break after 8 hours (49 CFR § 395.3). ELD data can show whether the driver was fatigued or in violation. Many trucks also have event data recorders ("black boxes") that capture speed, braking, and steering inputs in the seconds before a crash.

Other critical evidence includes the driver's logbooks and trip records, the carrier's safety rating and inspection history (searchable on the FMCSA's SAFER database), maintenance and repair logs, cargo loading records and weight tickets, the driver's CDL status, drug and alcohol testing results, and any dashcam or GPS data.

Trucking companies are legally required to preserve this evidence once they know about a potential claim. But in practice, ELD data can loop over itself, dashcam footage gets recorded over, and maintenance logs get filed away. A formal preservation letter — sent early — can make the difference between a strong case and a weak one.

If law enforcement responded to the scene — which they almost always will for a truck crash — they will file an official crash report. For Pittsburgh city police reports, mail a written request with a self-addressed stamped envelope, fee, and a copy of your ID to 1501 Brighton Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Cost is $4 to $15 per copy.

If Pennsylvania State Police investigated your crash, you can request the report online at pa.gov/psp/crash-reports. Reports cost $22, become available 15 days after the crash, and require either the case number or the crash date plus your last name.

Report the accident to your own auto insurance company within a reasonable timeframe. Stick to the basic facts: date, time, location, and that a commercial truck was involved. Do not speculate about fault, do not downplay your injuries, and do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company's insurer without first understanding your rights.

Pennsylvania is an at-fault state for liability purposes, meaning the person or company responsible for causing the accident pays for damages. In truck cases, liability can extend beyond the driver to the trucking company (for negligent hiring, training, or supervision), the cargo loading company (for improperly secured loads), the truck manufacturer (for defective parts), or a maintenance provider (for faulty repairs).

Pennsylvania follows a modified comparative negligence rule under 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 7102. If you're found partially at fault, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault. However, if you're found 51% or more at fault, you recover nothing. The trucking company's legal team will look for every possible way to shift blame — which is why preserving evidence and documenting everything matters so much.

The Fair Share Act (Act 17 of 2011) changed Pennsylvania from a joint and several liability state to a proportionate liability state. Each defendant generally pays only their share of fault. The exception is that defendants who are 60% or more at fault can be held jointly liable for all economic damages. In multi-vehicle truck crashes on I-376 or Route 28, identifying every responsible party is critical.

The statute of limitations for personal injury claims in Pennsylvania is two years from the date of the accident (42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5524). For wrongful death claims, it's two years from the date of death. Missing these deadlines means losing your right to file a claim entirely.

The trucking company's insurer will likely contact you quickly — sometimes within hours of the crash. They may sound sympathetic. They may offer a quick settlement. Their goal is to minimize what they pay, and anything you say can be used to reduce your claim.

Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company's insurance adjuster. Do not sign a medical authorization that gives them access to your full medical history. Do not accept an early settlement offer without understanding the full extent of your injuries — some truck accident injuries require months or years of treatment, and early settlements rarely account for long-term costs.

If you have limited tort coverage, the insurance company will aggressively argue that your injuries don't meet the "serious injury" threshold. Do not discuss your injuries in detail with anyone except your doctor and your attorney.

Truck accident cases are harder to handle alone than typical car crashes. You're not just dealing with one other driver — you may be up against a trucking corporation, their insurer, and a federal regulatory framework that most people have never heard of. Pennsylvania's tort system — with its full tort/limited tort distinction, PIP coverage, comparative negligence rules, and the Fair Share Act — adds another layer of complexity.

An attorney experienced in truck accident litigation can send a spoliation letter to preserve critical evidence before it's destroyed. They can investigate the trucking company's safety record, identify all potentially liable parties, handle communication with insurers, and pursue full compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and long-term care needs.

Most personal injury attorneys in Pittsburgh work on contingency. No upfront cost. Free initial consultation. You pay nothing unless they recover compensation for you.