Highway 115 Near Andrews, Texas: When a Crossover Collision With a Semi-Truck Kills — What the Family Needs to Know Right Now
If you found this page, you are probably sitting with a phone in your hand and a fact you cannot make sense of: someone you love was driving north on Highway 115 just outside Andrews, and at 6:31 in the morning their vehicle crossed into the southbound lane and collided with a semi-truck. They did not survive. The Department of Public Safety wrote it up in a report that makes it sound like the crash was their fault — one sentence, one direction of travel, one conclusion. And now you are being told to accept it.
We are writing this page because that DPS report is a starting point, not an ending. A vehicle does not leave its lane for no reason. The reason it left is the single most important question in your case, and the answer is sitting in evidence that is disappearing right now — the truck’s electronic logs, the car’s black box, the dashcam footage, the autopsy samples, the skid marks on the asphalt. Every one of those has a clock on it, and the clock is already running.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm. We handle commercial truck crash cases and wrongful death claims across Texas, including the Permian Basin corridors where oilfield truck traffic turns two-lane highways into kill zones. This page is legal information, not legal advice, and it is not a solicitation of any specific client or case. It is the straight, detailed explanation we would give you if you called us at 2 a.m. and asked: what do we do, and is there even a case here?
The short answer is: there may well be. But the evidence has to be preserved now, and the DPS narrative has to be investigated before anyone — including any insurance adjuster who calls you — treats it as the final word.
The Permian Basin’s Highway 115 and the Oilfield Shift-Change Kill Window
Highway 115 north of Andrews is a two-lane rural highway cutting through the heart of the Permian Basin oilfield. If you have driven it, you know what it looks like at dawn: a thin ribbon of asphalt, no center barrier, shoulders that range from narrow to nonexistent, and a river of heavy trucks — water haulers, frac-sand transporters, crude-oil tankers, equipment movers — flowing in both directions at a volume the road was never engineered to carry.
The 6:31 a.m. timestamp matters more than most people realize. That is the oilfield shift-change window, the hour when the overnight crews are heading home and the day crews are heading out, and the heavy-vehicle density on these rural routes peaks. Visibility at that hour can still be suboptimal — the sun is low, the asphalt may be damp from overnight condensation, and a driver facing east can be staring into a wall of glare. On a two-lane highway with no centerline rumble strips, no barrier separation, and inadequate shoulder width, a crossover head-on collision is not a freak event. It is a known, recurring hazard that the region’s infrastructure was never upgraded to prevent.
This is not speculation. The Permian Basin’s fatal crash rates are disproportionately elevated relative to the rest of Texas, and the oilfield truck traffic that drives those numbers operates under federal regulations that govern how long a driver can be behind the wheel, how the vehicle must be maintained, and what the company must do after a fatal crash. Those regulations — and the records they force into existence — are where the real investigation begins.
Why a DPS Preliminary Report Is Not the Final Word on Fault
The Texas Department of Public Safety crash report — the CR-3 — is prepared by a trooper who arrived after the collision was over. It documents what the trooper observed: skid marks, vehicle positions, road conditions, witness statements taken at the scene. It is a valuable investigative document. It is not a liability determination, and it is not a verdict.
When the DPS report says a vehicle “entered the southbound lane,” that is a description of what happened physically. It is not an explanation of why. And in Texas law, the why is everything.
A vehicle can cross a centerline for dozens of reasons that have nothing to do with driver negligence:
- A tire blowout can cause a sudden, violent loss of directional control that no driver could correct. The EDR data will show a sudden lateral acceleration event with no corresponding steering input — the signature of a catastrophic tire failure, not driver distraction.
- A steering-component failure — a broken tie rod, a separated ball joint, a failed rack — can make the vehicle unsteerable. The vehicle’s undercarriage and the debris field on the road will tell that story if someone photographs and preserves them before the salvage yard crushes the car.
- A sudden medical emergency — a cardiac event, a seizure, a syncopal episode — can cause a driver to lose consciousness and drift across the centerline with no braking and no steering correction. The autopsy and toxicology report are the evidence that proves or disproves this, and biological specimens degrade with every day that passes.
- An evasive maneuver to avoid a road hazard — debris, an animal, a vehicle pulling out from a side road — can force a driver into the oncoming lane. Skid marks, gouge marks, and the geometry of the point of impact can reconstruct whether the crossover was a reaction to something else on the road.
- Road conditions — a slick surface, a shoulder drop-off, a soft edge — can cause a vehicle to leave its lane. A two-lane highway without centerline rumble strips gives a drifting driver no tactile warning before they are in the oncoming lane.
None of these are speculative. Each one is an evidence question, and the evidence is sitting in the vehicle’s black box, in the truck’s electronic systems, in the autopsy samples, and on the road itself — all of it perishable, all of it on a clock.
Texas applies a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51% bar — if the plaintiff is found 51% or more at fault, recovery is entirely barred; if 50% or less, recovery is reduced by the plaintiff’s percentage of responsibility.
That single rule is the architecture of your case. If the crossover is attributed solely to driver error — if the DPS narrative goes unchallenged and no evidence surfaces to explain why the vehicle left its lane — the fault allocation could place the driver at 51% or higher, and every dollar of recovery disappears. But if the evidence shows a tire failure, a medical emergency, a mechanical defect, or an avoidance maneuver, the comparative-fault calculus transforms entirely. And if the truck driver had time and distance to brake or steer right and failed to take evasive action, the truck driver shares fault under Texas’s proportionate-responsibility framework — which means even a driver who crossed the centerline may still have a recoverable claim.
This is why the case’s value hinges almost entirely on what the forensic evidence reveals. And this is why the first 72 hours are decisive.
The Semi-Truck: Who Is Really Behind the Wheel and What the Law Requires
The semi-truck involved in this crash was operating on a public highway in interstate or intrastate commerce, which means it is subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations — 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399. These are not suggestions. They are federal law, and they govern the driver, the carrier, and the vehicle.
Hours of Service: Was the Truck Driver Fatigued at 6:31 a.m.?
Federal law caps a commercial truck driver’s driving time at 11 hours within a 14-hour shift, and the driver cannot be behind the wheel after 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days. The 6:31 a.m. crash time makes the driver’s Hours of Service compliance and rest-cycle data critical. If this was an oilfield service truck, certain regulatory exemptions may apply to driving hours — but those exemptions do not eliminate the duty of safe operation. A fatigued driver has slower reaction time, impaired perception, and reduced ability to take evasive action when an oncoming vehicle crosses into their lane.
The record that proves whether the driver was compliant is the Electronic Logging Device — the ELD. It records the driver’s duty status, driving hours, and location. But here is what the company is counting on you not knowing:
Federal law only requires the carrier to retain those records for six months. After that, deletion is legal. The ELD data that would show whether the driver had been awake and behind the wheel too long — whether fatigue stole the seconds that could have been used to brake or swerve — can be lawfully erased before a slow-moving family ever reaches it.
The Truck Driver’s Duty to Take Evasive Action
Here is something most people do not know, and it is central to your case: even when an oncoming vehicle crosses the centerline, a commercial truck driver has a duty to maintain proper lookout and take reasonable evasive action. A fully loaded tractor-trailer at highway speed requires roughly the length of two football fields to come to a complete stop. That is a vast distance, and within it there may have been time to brake, to steer right, to flash lights, to honk the air horn. If the truck driver had time and distance to react and failed to do so, the truck driver shares comparative fault under Texas’s proportionate-responsibility framework.
The evidence that answers this question lives in three places:
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The truck’s Engine Control Module (ECM) — the heavy-truck equivalent of a black box. It records hard-brake events, last-stop data, speed, throttle position, and brake application. But unlike a passenger car’s EDR, which locks its data when the airbags deploy, the truck’s ECM memory is small and it overwrites itself the moment the truck is driven away. If the carrier puts that rig back on the road, the evidence of whether the driver ever braked is gone.
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The truck’s dashcam footage — if the truck was equipped with a forward-facing camera, it may show the victim’s vehicle behavior before and during the crossover and the truck driver’s evasive action, or lack thereof. This is the most decisive evidence on comparative fault. It is also the most perishable: dashcam storage typically overwrites within 24 to 72 hours unless someone demands it be preserved.
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The truck’s telematics and GPS data — speed, location, braking events at the time of impact. This data may auto-overwrite within days.
The Carrier: Who Are They, and What Do They Owe?
The semi-truck’s operating carrier was not publicly identified in the initial reports. Carrier identification is a first-order investigative priority. Given the Andrews County location in the Permian Basin, the vehicle may be an oilfield service truck — a water hauler, a sand transporter, an equipment mover — or a regional freight carrier. Each has a distinct regulatory profile and insurance structure.
Critical discovery targets include the carrier’s DOT number, their MCS-90 endorsement status (which governs federal financial responsibility for interstate motor carriers), their safety rating, their Compliance, Safety, Accountability scores, and the driver’s HOS compliance at the 6:31 a.m. crash time. Carriers operating in the Permian Basin have been documented to have elevated rates of HOS violations, inadequate maintenance, and driver fatigue issues related to the shift-work demands of the oilfield.
The carrier also faces potential liability beyond the driver’s actions. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, the carrier is vicariously liable for its driver’s negligence. But the carrier may also face independent corporate negligence claims for hiring, training, supervision, route planning, and vehicle maintenance. If the driver had a poor record — prior crashes, citations, HOS violations — and the carrier hired or retained them anyway, that is a negligent hiring and retention claim that can dramatically increase the value of the case and the pressure on the carrier to settle.
Federal law sets the minimum financial responsibility for a for-hire interstate carrier of non-hazardous property at $750,000. For certain hazardous materials, the floor rises to $1 million or $5 million. But those are statutory minimums set decades ago and not adjusted for inflation. Many carriers carry far higher voluntary limits, and the coverage tower — primary, excess, umbrella — can run into the millions. Knowing which policies exist, in what order they pay, is half the value of the case.
The Evidence Clock: What Exists, Who Holds It, and How Fast It Legally Dies
This is the most important section on this page. If you read nothing else, read this. Every piece of evidence that could explain why this crash happened — and whether the truck driver shares fault — is on a timer. Some of it is measured in days. Some in hours.
The Victim Vehicle’s Event Data Recorder (EDR / Black Box)
The EDR in the victim’s vehicle is the single most important piece of evidence in the case. It reveals pre-impact speed, steering wheel input, braking application, throttle position, and seatbelt status in the seconds before the crash. This data is what distinguishes between distraction (no steering input, no braking, steady throttle), a medical emergency (sudden loss of steering input with no braking), a tire failure (sudden lateral acceleration with no corresponding steering input), and an evasive maneuver (sharp steering input with braking).
The vehicle is likely in an impound lot or a salvage yard. EDR data can be overwritten or the vehicle can be destroyed within weeks. A preservation demand and an inspection by a qualified crash-data-retrieval technician must occur within days — not weeks, not months.
The Semi-Truck’s ELD and Telematics Data
The truck’s Electronic Logging Device establishes the driver’s Hours of Service compliance, speed, braking events, and precise GPS location at the time of impact. A fatigue or HOS violation shifts comparative fault toward the truck driver and the carrier. ELD data may auto-overwrite within 8 days. Carrier retention policies vary. A preservation letter to the carrier is required immediately — the day you call a lawyer, not the month.
The Semi-Truck’s Dashcam Footage
If the truck was equipped with a forward-facing or inward-facing camera, the footage may show the victim’s vehicle behavior before and during the crossover and the truck driver’s evasive action or lack thereof. This is potentially the most decisive evidence on comparative fault in the entire case. Dashcam storage typically overwrites on a rolling loop — 24 to 72 hours is common. If no one sends a preservation demand to the carrier ordering them to freeze that footage, it will be gone before the funeral is over.
The Autopsy and Toxicology Report
The medical examiner’s autopsy determines whether a medical emergency — a cardiac event, a seizure, syncope — caused the crossover. Toxicology screens for intoxicants and medications. Both also screen for confounders that the defense may exploit. The autopsy is typically performed within days of death, but biological specimens — blood, tissue — degrade. A request to preserve those samples must go out immediately. If the specimens are destroyed before an independent forensic pathologist can review them, the medical-emergency theory may become impossible to prove.
The DPS Crash Report (CR-3) and Scene Evidence
The CR-3 documents skid marks, gouge marks, point of impact, vehicle final rest positions, road conditions, and the presence or absence of safety features such as centerline rumble strips. The DPS report is typically available within 10 to 14 days. But scene evidence — the physical marks on the road, the debris field, the fluid trails — degrades within days as traffic wears it away and weather washes it off. If the scene was not photographed and measured by a reconstruction expert in the first 48 to 72 hours, that evidence is likely already compromised.
The Semi-Truck’s Maintenance and Inspection Records
The truck’s maintenance records reveal brake condition, tire condition, and overall mechanical fitness. A braking deficiency could show the truck failed to take available evasive action that a compliant vehicle could have executed. Carriers may purge or overwrite maintenance records under standard retention cycles. A preservation letter to the carrier is required immediately.
The Victim’s Cellular Phone Records
Phone records may reveal whether distraction contributed to the crossover — or, conversely, they may confirm no phone use at the time, which eliminates a key defense theory and removes one of the adjuster’s favorite weapons. Carrier data retention varies and may be as short as 90 days. A preservation letter to the cellular provider is required within weeks.
The Semi-Truck Driver’s Personnel File and Qualification Dossier
The driver’s personnel file reveals prior crashes, citations, HOS violations, medical certification status, and training record. This supports negligent hiring, retention, and supervision claims against the carrier. Personnel records may be purged upon a driver’s separation from the carrier. A preservation letter to the carrier is required immediately.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook: What They Will Do and How to Counter It
We know this playbook from the inside. Lupe Peña spent years at a national insurance-defense firm before he came to our side of the table. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like you. He knows how claims are priced, how reserves are set in the first 48 hours before the real injuries are documented, how IME doctors are selected, and how surveillance and social-media mining are deployed. Now he uses that knowledge for injured families.
Here are the plays you should expect — and the counter to each one.
Play 1: The “Just Checking In” Recorded Statement
Within days, someone friendly will call to “check on you” and ask you to “just tell us what happened.” The call is recorded. Every word you say is being built into a transcript that will be quoted against you later. The adjuster is not your friend. The adjuster is a professional whose job is to close this claim for the lowest possible number.
The counter: Do not give a recorded statement. Do not describe the crash, your loved one’s driving, or your family’s emotional state. A simple “I am not prepared to give a statement at this time, and I would ask that you contact my attorney” is all you need to say. If you do not have an attorney yet, say “I am not ready to discuss this.” That sentence protects you.
Play 2: The Fast Settlement Check
A check may arrive fast — sometimes within weeks — with a release document attached. The release, once signed, extinguishes every claim your family has against the trucking company and its insurer, forever, for whatever amount is on that check. The check will arrive before the autopsy is complete, before the EDR is analyzed, before the truck’s logs are examined, and before anyone knows why the vehicle crossed the centerline.
The counter: Do not sign anything. Do not cash any check from the trucking company’s insurer. Do not sign medical or records authorizations from the carrier. The purpose of a fast check is to buy a release before the evidence reveals what the case is actually worth — which is almost always far more than the fast-check amount.
Play 3: The DPS Report as a Weapon
The adjuster will quote the DPS report: “Your loved one crossed into the oncoming lane.” They will use that sentence to argue the case is worth little or nothing because the fault is clear. They will say it calmly, sympathetically, as if they are doing you a favor by offering anything at all.
The counter: The DPS report is a preliminary finding, not a final determination of fault. Vehicles leave their lanes for many reasons, and the reason has to be investigated by someone who works for your family, not for the insurance company. The EDR, the autopsy, the truck’s telematics, and the scene reconstruction are the evidence that answers the real question — and none of it has been examined yet when the adjuster is quoting the DPS report at you.
Play 4: The “You Were Partly at Fault” Argument
Under Texas’s 51% bar, the adjuster will try to pin as much fault as possible on your loved one. Every percentage point they can assign is money off the settlement. They will argue distraction, fatigue, inattention, speeding. They will look at the phone records, the speed data, the driving record.
The counter: The truck driver also had duties — to maintain proper lookout, to take evasive action, to operate at a speed appropriate for conditions, to be properly rested. If the truck driver was fatigued, distracted, or speeding, those violations shift comparative fault. And if a superseding cause — a tire blowout, a medical emergency, a mechanical failure — explains the crossover, the victim’s comparative fault may be eliminated or substantially reduced. The fight is over the evidence, and the evidence has not been gathered yet.
What a Wrongful Death Case Is Worth in Texas
We are going to be honest with you about value, because pretending a case is worth more or less than it is does not serve your family.
The Honest Range
In a crossover collision where the victim’s vehicle entered the oncoming lane, the case value range is extraordinarily wide — from zero to potentially seven figures — because it depends almost entirely on what the forensic evidence reveals.
At the low end: If the evidence shows the crossover was caused solely by driver error — distraction, fatigue, inattention — and the truck driver had no time or ability to take evasive action, the victim could be assigned 51% or more of the fault, and recovery may be entirely barred under Texas’s 51% rule. In that scenario, the case value is zero. We will not pretend otherwise.
At the high end: If the EDR data shows a tire failure, a steering-component defect, or a sudden medical emergency caused the crossover, the victim’s comparative fault may be eliminated. If the truck’s telematics show the driver was fatigued or speeding, or if the dashcam shows the truck driver failed to take available evasive action, the truck driver and carrier share fault. In a clear-liability or shared-liability scenario against a commercially insured truck, a wrongful death claim for an Odessa resident with potential decades of lost earning capacity could support a seven-figure recovery.
The case value depends on specific facts that have not been investigated yet. The EDR, the autopsy, and the truck’s electronic data are the evidence that determines which end of that range your case falls in.
What Texas Law Allows You to Recover
Texas’s Wrongful Death Act permits recovery by surviving spouses, children, and parents. The damages available include mental anguish, loss of earning capacity, loss of companionship and society, and loss of inheritance. Funeral and burial expenses are recoverable. Texas’s Survival Statute allows the estate to recover for the decedent’s pain and suffering and medical expenses incurred before death — though in a case where death was pronounced at the scene, survival damages are likely limited because there may have been minimal or no conscious pain and suffering between impact and death. This must be confirmed by the autopsy report.
Texas does not impose a statutory cap on wrongful death damages in standard motor vehicle cases. Exemplary — punitive — damages are available but require clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence, and they are subject to the statutory cap framework in the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
The Damages Deflator
The critical damages deflator in this case is comparative fault. If the victim is assigned 51% or more responsibility for crossing into the oncoming lane, all recovery is barred. This is why the causation investigation — the EDR, the autopsy, the truck’s logs, the reconstruction — is the single most important value driver. Not the injury. Not the medical bills. The evidence of why the vehicle left its lane.
The First 72 Hours: What Families Should Do Immediately
If you are reading this in the hours or days after the crash, here is what needs to happen — in order, and fast.
1. Do not speak to the trucking company’s insurance adjuster. Not once. Not even to “get information.” Every word you say is being recorded and built into a defense. If they call, say: “I am not prepared to discuss this matter. Please contact my attorney.” If you do not have an attorney yet, say: “I am not ready to discuss this.” That is all.
2. Do not sign anything. No medical authorizations. No release forms. No “acknowledgment of receipt” documents. Nothing. If someone hands you a document at the funeral home, at the hospital, or in the mail, do not sign it. Bring it to a lawyer.
3. Do not allow anyone to inspect, move, or dispose of the victim’s vehicle. The vehicle is evidence. It contains the EDR — the black box that holds the pre-crash data that can explain why the vehicle crossed the centerline. If the vehicle is in a tow yard, it is accruing storage fees — and the insurance company may offer to “help with the tow bill” as a pretext to get the vehicle released and destroyed. Do not release the vehicle. A preservation letter from a lawyer can freeze it in place.
4. Request that the medical examiner preserve biological specimens. The autopsy blood and tissue samples are the evidence that proves or disproves a medical emergency. They degrade with time. A lawyer can send a formal request to the medical examiner’s office to preserve those samples for independent analysis.
5. Get the preservation letter out to the semi-truck carrier. This is the single most time-critical step. The letter must target the ELD data, the dashcam footage, the telematics, the maintenance records, and the driver’s personnel file. The carrier has no obligation to preserve any of it unless they receive a formal litigation-hold demand. The dashcam footage may overwrite itself within 24 to 72 hours. The ECM data may overwrite the moment the truck is driven away. Every hour that passes is an hour of evidence that may be gone forever.
6. Do not post on social media. Do not post about the crash, about your loved one, about the trucking company, about the investigation. Insurance investigators monitor social media. A photograph, a comment, a “check-in” can be taken out of context and used against your family. Set your accounts to private and post nothing about the case.
How We Build These Cases
Here is how a wrongful death case against a commercial truck carrier is actually built — the chronological walk from the day you call to the day the number is reached.
Week One: Preservation
The preservation demand goes out the day you call. It goes to the carrier, to the driver, to any third-party data vendor (the ELD provider, the telematics company), and to the salvage yard holding the vehicle. It orders them, in writing, to freeze every piece of electronic data, every video file, every maintenance record, every personnel document, and the physical vehicle itself. This letter is what converts an automatic erase into sanctionable destruction. If the carrier lets evidence die after receiving that letter, a judge can tell the jury to assume the lost record was as bad for the carrier as the plaintiff says it was.
Weeks Two Through Four: Downloads and Records
The EDR is extracted from the victim’s vehicle by a certified crash-data-retrieval technician. The ECM is downloaded from the truck. The ELD and telematics data are pulled. The DPS crash report is obtained. The autopsy and toxicology reports are requested. The driver’s qualification file, the carrier’s accident register, the maintenance records, and the HOS logs are demanded. This is the discovery phase — the phase where the case’s shape emerges from the data.
Months Two Through Six: Expert Analysis
A credentialed accident reconstructionist analyzes the closing speed, the available perception-response time for the truck driver, and the geometry of evasive action. A forensic pathologist reviews the autopsy for medical causation of the lane departure. If a mechanical failure is suspected, a automotive engineer inspects the vehicle’s steering, suspension, and tire components. The EDR data is correlated with the ECM data, the scene evidence, and the physical damage to both vehicles. The expert’s job is to answer the one question that decides the case: why did the vehicle cross the centerline, and could the truck driver have done anything about it?
Months Six Through Twelve: Discovery and Depositions
If the case is in litigation, the records come out in formal discovery. The truck driver is deposed under oath — asked about their rest cycle, their speed, their attention to the road, their evasive actions. The carrier’s safety director is deposed about the driver’s hiring, training, and supervision. The maintenance records are examined for brake deficiencies or tire defects that could have prevented evasive action. The personnel file is examined for prior crashes, citations, or HOS violations that the carrier knew about and ignored.
Mediation and Resolution
Mediation should be deferred until the full causation picture emerges from the EDR, the autopsy, and the truck telematics. A settlement demand made before the evidence is assembled is premature and potentially self-defeating — especially given the 51% bar. The demand must be built on proof that keeps the victim at or below 50% fault. Once that proof is in hand, the demand is a document the carrier’s insurer cannot ignore — because if they fail to settle within policy limits and a jury returns a verdict above those limits, the carrier’s own insurer may be on the hook for the full judgment under Texas’s Stowers doctrine.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. We have recovered millions of dollars in trucking wrongful-death cases, including a $2.5 million truck-crash recovery, and our firm has recovered over $50 million total for injured clients. But every case stands on its own evidence, and the evidence in your case has not been gathered yet.
The Firm: Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña
Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — he learned to find the story the facts tell, not the story someone wants told. He is admitted to the State Bar of Texas and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He built this firm in 2001, and he has spent nearly a quarter-century going after the companies and corporations that cut corners and the insurance carriers that protect them. He speaks Spanish.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like the reader. He knows claim valuation from the inside, he knows how IME doctors are selected, and he knows every delay tactic in the playbook. Now he sits on your side of the table. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. He is a third-generation Texan with family roots to the King Ranch, born and raised in Sugar Land.
We work on contingency. That means we do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is 33.33% before trial and 40% if the case goes to trial. The consultation is free. We have 24/7 live staff — not an answering service, real people who can take your call at any hour and get your message to us immediately. And when we say we send preservation letters the day you call, we mean it: the evidence clock is the first thing we address, because it is the thing that cannot wait.
For families in the Permian Basin dealing with an oilfield truck crash, the corridor, the shift-change timing, the federal regulations, and the carrier’s electronic records are all things we know how to find and how to use. This is what we do.
Frequently Asked Questions
The DPS report says my loved one crossed into the oncoming lane. Does that mean the case is hopeless?
No. A DPS crash report is a preliminary investigative document, not a liability determination. Vehicles cross centerlines for many reasons — tire failures, mechanical defects, medical emergencies, evasive maneuvers, road hazards — and the reason has to be investigated before anyone assumes the driver was at fault. The EDR data, the autopsy, the truck’s electronic systems, and the scene reconstruction are the evidence that answers the real question. The DPS report describes what happened physically; it does not explain why, and the why is what decides the case under Texas’s 51% comparative-fault bar.
How long do I have to file a wrongful death claim in Texas?
Texas sets a two-year statute of limitations on both wrongful death and survival actions, running from the date of death. That is the outer boundary. But the evidence that decides the case — the ELD data, the dashcam footage, the ECM records, the biological specimens — dies on a far shorter clock. The legal deadline and the evidence deadline are two very different things. You may have two years to sue, but you have days to save the proof.
Can we still recover if the victim was partly at fault?
Yes, potentially. Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51% bar. If the victim is found to be 50% or less at fault, recovery is reduced by their percentage of responsibility but is not barred. If the victim is found to be 51% or more at fault, recovery is entirely barred. This is why the causation investigation is the single most important value driver — if the evidence shows a superseding cause for the crossover, or if it shows the truck driver shared fault for failing to take evasive action, the victim’s fault percentage can drop below 51% and recovery is preserved.
The trucking company’s insurance adjuster already called. What should I do?
Do not give a recorded statement. Do not sign anything. Do not accept any check. Do not authorize the release of any medical records. Say: “I am not prepared to discuss this matter.” If they persist, say it again. The adjuster’s job is to close your claim for the lowest possible number, and every word you say is being recorded and built into a defense. The first move that protects you is a preservation letter from a lawyer — not a conversation with an adjuster.
What if the semi-truck driver was fatigued or had been driving too long?
That is exactly what the ELD and telematics data will show. Federal Hours of Service rules cap a commercial driver at 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour shift. The 6:31 a.m. crash time falls in the oilfield shift-change window, when fatigue is a known risk. If the truck driver was in violation of HOS rules, that violation may constitute negligence per se and shifts comparative-fault allocation toward the truck driver. The ELD data that proves compliance or noncompliance can be legally destroyed after six months — which is why the preservation letter has to go out immediately.
What if a tire blowout or mechanical failure caused the crossover?
If the EDR data or the physical inspection of the vehicle reveals a tire failure, a steering-component defect, or another sudden mechanical failure, the manufacturer of the defective component may bear strict liability under products liability law. In that scenario, the victim’s comparative fault for the crossover may be eliminated entirely, because the crossover was caused by a product defect, not driver error. The vehicle must be preserved and inspected by a qualified engineer before it is repaired, sold, or crushed — and that inspection has to happen within days, not weeks.
Is there enough insurance coverage to make this worth pursuing?
A commercial truck operating in interstate commerce is federally required to carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage — and many carriers carry far more, stacked in layers of primary, excess, and umbrella policies. If the truck was hauling certain hazardous materials, the federal floor rises to $1 million or $5 million. The real coverage tower is discovered through the carrier’s insurance filings and in litigation. The $750,000 statutory minimum is a floor, not a ceiling. A wrongful death case against a commercially insured truck, in a clear or shared-liability scenario, can reach well into seven figures.
How much does it cost to hire Attorney911?
Nothing up front. We work on contingency — we do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is 33.33% if the case settles before trial and 40% if it goes to trial. The consultation is free. We have 24/7 live staff. And the first thing we do — the day you call — is send the preservation letters that freeze the evidence before it disappears. That work starts before any fee is earned, because the evidence clock cannot wait.
Do you speak Spanish?
Yes. Lupe Peña is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. Our staff is bilingual. Hablamos Español. If your family is more comfortable in Spanish, we will meet you in your language — every conversation, every document, every step of the way.
The crash happened a while ago. Is it too late?
If the crash occurred within the last two years, you are likely still within Texas’s statute of limitations for wrongful death and survival claims. But the evidence — the ELD data, the dashcam footage, the ECM records, the biological specimens — may already be gone if no preservation letter was sent. The older the case, the more urgent the investigation. Call us and we will tell you honestly whether the evidence is still recoverable and whether the case is still viable. There is no charge for that conversation.
Call Us Now: 1-888-ATTY-911
If your family is reading this page in the hours or days after a fatal crossover collision with a semi-truck on Highway 115 or anywhere in the Permian Basin, the most important thing we can tell you is this: time is the enemy of truth in this case. The truck’s electronic data, any dashcam footage, and the vehicle’s black box all have short retention windows, and this evidence must be preserved now or it will be gone forever.
The call is free. The consultation is confidential. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And the preservation letters go out the day you call — because that is the work that cannot wait.
1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911)
24/7 live staff. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Hablamos Español.
Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. Legal Emergency Lawyers™.
This page is legal information, not legal advice, and is not a solicitation of any specific client or case. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.