SambaSafety’s 2026 Driver Risk Report analyzes millions of motor-vehicle records, telematics events, regulatory records, and insurance claims to identify trends in driver behavior and roadway risk.

For people involved in a serious truck accident, the report provides an important reminder: understanding why a commercial vehicle crash occurred often requires looking well beyond the accident itself.

Large Trucks Continue to Present Significant Safety Risks

One of the report’s most significant findings concerns large trucks.

According to the report, large-truck involvement in fatal crashes has increased substantially since 2009. The data demonstrates the continuing dangers associated with commercial motor vehicles and the enormous consequences that can result when a commercial driver makes a serious mistake.

A collision involving an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer is fundamentally different from an ordinary passenger-vehicle accident. The size and weight of commercial trucks can turn relatively small driving errors into catastrophic crashes.

That makes driver qualification, training, supervision, and compliance with safety regulations particularly important.

Speeding Remains a Major Problem

Speeding continues to be one of the leading driver violations identified in the report.

The report indicates that speeding accounts for approximately 36.5% of major violations and has remained the leading major violation since 2020.

Speed is particularly important in truck accidents because commercial vehicles require substantially more distance to stop and can cause devastating injuries when traveling at excessive speeds.

When a serious truck crash occurs, determining the truck’s speed before the collision can therefore be an important part of the investigation.

Electronic data, event data recorders, telematics systems, GPS information, onboard systems, video footage, and other evidence may help establish what the truck was doing immediately before the crash.

Distracted Driving Is Also Increasing

The report identifies another troubling trend: distracted-driving violations increased 31% over a two-year period.

Distraction can take many forms. A commercial driver may be looking at a phone, interacting with an electronic device, adjusting equipment, looking away from the roadway, or otherwise failing to devote the attention required to safely operate a large commercial vehicle.

For a truck driver, even a few seconds of inattention can have catastrophic consequences.

That is why an investigation of a serious commercial-truck collision should consider more than whether the driver received a citation. Evidence concerning cellphone use, electronic devices, onboard technology, dash cameras, and company policies may be relevant to determining what happened.

Fatigue and Poor Sleep Are Important Safety Concerns

Fatigue is another significant issue discussed in the report.

SambaSafety’s analysis identifies a relationship between poor sleep and increased accident risk, highlighting the continuing importance of driver fatigue as a roadway-safety issue.

Fatigue has long been a concern in the trucking industry. Commercial drivers operate under federal hours-of-service regulations designed, in part, to reduce the dangers associated with excessive driving and inadequate rest.

But compliance cannot always be determined simply by asking whether a driver was technically within the hours permitted by regulation.

In an appropriate case, investigators may need to examine electronic logging-device records, dispatch records, trip schedules, GPS information, communications between the driver and the company, and other evidence to understand whether fatigue played a role in the crash.

Trucking Violations Matter

The report also identifies hundreds of thousands of out-of-service violations involving commercial vehicles.

A violation by itself does not necessarily prove that a particular truck driver or trucking company caused an accident. But safety violations can provide important information when investigating a serious collision.

For example, an investigation may reveal issues involving:

• Driver qualification and licensing
• Hours-of-service compliance
• Vehicle maintenance
• Speeding
• Distracted driving
• Drug and alcohol testing
• Prior crashes
• Safety violations
• Driver training
• Company supervision
• Electronic logging records
• Telematics and vehicle data

The important question is often not simply “What happened in this crash?”

It is also:

“What did the trucking company know, what should it have known, and what did it do about the risks?”

A Truck Accident Investigation Should Go Beyond the Police Report

After a serious truck accident, the police report is important—but it is only one piece of the evidence.

A thorough investigation may require obtaining and examining records that are not available at the scene of the crash.

Those records can include the driver’s motor-vehicle history, commercial driver’s license records, inspection and maintenance records, hours-of-service information, electronic logging data, driver qualification materials, company safety records, communications, GPS data, telematics information, and available video.

Some electronic evidence can also be overwritten, lost, or otherwise become more difficult to obtain as time passes.

That is one reason early investigation and preservation of evidence can be so important in a serious trucking case.

What This Means for People Injured in Truck Crashes

The 2026 Driver Risk Report does not tell us why any particular truck accident occurred. Instead, it provides broader data showing that speeding, distraction, fatigue, regulatory violations, and other forms of driver risk remain serious safety concerns.

For someone seriously injured in a commercial-truck collision, those findings reinforce an important point:

The cause of a truck accident may not be apparent from looking at the vehicles or reading the initial accident report.

Understanding what happened may require a detailed examination of the driver’s history, the trucking company’s safety practices, electronic data, regulatory compliance, and the circumstances leading up to the collision.

At The Hamilton Firm, we believe serious truck accident cases require that kind of investigation. Our goal is not simply to determine what happened at the moment of impact, but to understand why the crash happened and whether the driver, trucking company, or other responsible parties failed to follow the safety rules designed to prevent it.

Source: SambaSafety, 2026 Driver Risk Report.

This appeal concerns whether a motor carrier that outsourced a shipping job to a second carrier, which then outsourced it to a third carrier, can be held liable for the negligence of the driver hired by the third carrier.
The district court held that it could not as a matter of law. We disagree, so we REVERSE.

The underlying facts involved a horrific wreck that resulted in the death of another motorist when the Defendant Driver crossed into oncoming traffic. The Shipper (Adient) hired Penske Logistics to transport goods. Penske did not own the truck the Defendant Driver was driving. Penske also did not hire the Defendant Driver. Instead, Penske was hired by Adient, and then outsourced the job to another motor carrier – Liberty Lane – through their affiliate broker, Penske Transportation Management. Liberty Lane then had its affiliate broker hire a third motor carrier – OK Trans. OK Trans supplied the truck and hired the Defendant Driver.

Plaintiff alleged that Penske was vicariously liable for the Defendant Driver’s negligence, and that Penske Transportation Management was negligent in hiring Liberty Lane to transport the shipment. The Penske defendants moved for summary judgment, which the district court granted.

The reviewing court cited 49 CFR 376.22 for the proposition that since Penske was a carrier, it was required to take “control and responsibility for operation of the equipment.” The Court reasoned: “Since Penske – a carrier – employed Liberty Lane – a carrier that leased the truck at issue from OK Trans – to ship the good, their arrangement falls under 49 CFR 376.22.” As a result, the Defendant Driver was a statutory employee of Penske.

The Fifth Circuit further reversed the District Court finding as to preemption of the negligent hiring claims against Penske Transportation Management due to the Montgomery case being issued while the case was on appeal.

Bottom line: In trucking litigation, there is often more than one responsible party for the negligence of a truck driver. It is important to hire a lawyer that understands trucking litigation. Good lawyers solve the puzzle and figure out who all of the responsible parties are so that there is a chance at obtaining reasonable compensation. Fly by night trucking companies often carry only $750,000 in insurance. Larger companies double broker loads to try to avoid liability while making a profit on the difference between what they are paid by the shipper versus what they pay the motor carrier and driver that ultimately transports the load. All the while, the shipper often has no idea that a unsafe motor carrier and/or driver is who is actually transporting the load. Again, it is crucial to hire a lawyer that understands the complexities of trucking litigation.

This article is for informational purposes only and discusses a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. While the decision is not binding on Tennessee courts, it illustrates important principles that frequently arise in commercial trucking litigation nationwide.

Author: Patrick A. Cruise