A Stolen 18-Wheeler, a Police Pursuit, and You on Interstate 20 — What This Means and What You Do Next
You were on I-20. Maybe you were driving home from a shift in the oilfield, or heading through Odessa on the way to somewhere else, and suddenly there was an 18-wheeler where it was not supposed to be — moving too fast, being chased, doing something no truck that size should ever do on a highway full of people. You may have been hit. You may have been forced off the road. You may have watched it happen and spent the night since then unable to close your eyes. Whatever brought you to this page, you are reading it because something broke open your ordinary day and you are trying to understand what just happened to you and what you are supposed to do now.
Here is the first thing we want you to know: what happened on that interstate was not your fault, and the fact that the truck was stolen does not mean no one is responsible for what it did to you. It means the question of who pays is harder — and harder is exactly why you need someone who has done this before.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm. We handle 18-wheeler and commercial truck crash cases across Texas, including the Permian Basin corridors that run through Ector County and the Midland-Odessa metro. Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. Lupe Peña sat on the other side of this table — inside a national insurance-defense firm, in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like you — before he came to this side. Now he uses that knowledge for injured clients. We work in English and in Spanish. The consultation is free. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And the conversation starts with 1-888-ATTY-911.
Now let us tell you what this case actually is, what makes it different from every other truck crash on I-20, and what is happening to the evidence while you read this.
What Happened on I-20: A Stolen Semi, a Pursuit, and a Danger That Was Never Supposed to Be on That Road
Here is what the public reporting tells us: an El Paso man was arrested in Ector County, Texas, after a police pursuit of a reportedly stolen semi-truck along or near Interstate 20 in the Odessa area. The pursuit happened on one of the busiest commercial-vehicle corridors in the Permian Basin — an east-west interstate that carries a high volume of oilfield truck traffic, through-traffic, and passenger vehicles at highway speeds, with limited exit points and long stretches of limited lighting.
That is what we know. What we do not yet know — and what an investigation would determine — is whether any civilian vehicles were struck or forced off the road during the pursuit, how fast the stolen semi was traveling, how long the chase lasted, and whether the pursuing officers followed their own department’s pursuit policy. Those facts decide everything about whether there is a civil case and who it is against.
But here is what we can tell you already: a stolen commercial motor vehicle operated by an unqualified driver, fleeing law enforcement on a populated interstate, is one of the most dangerous things that can happen on a Texas highway. An empty semi-truck tractor can weigh 15,000 to 25,000 pounds. Hook up a trailer and you may be looking at 30,000 pounds or more of mass moving at 70 miles per hour, controlled by someone who has no commercial driver’s license, no training, and every reason to drive recklessly because they are trying to escape. The people in the passenger vehicles around that truck — your family, you — never had a chance to prepare for what was coming at them.
Interstate 20 through Ector County is not an abstract location to us. It is the same corridor where Permian Basin oilfield commercial truck accidents happen — a road built for heavy commerce, carrying a mix of high-speed through traffic, oilfield industrial crossings, and long stretches where a driver in a passenger car has nowhere to go when a 30,000-pound truck comes barreling toward them in the wrong lane. The Ector County courts — the 161st and 446th Judicial District Courts — have seen commercial vehicle cases before, and the community that sits on those juries knows what oilfield trucking looks like and what happens when something this size runs out of control on their road.
Who Is Liable When a Stolen 18-Wheeler Hurts Innocent People
This is where this case becomes unlike any ordinary truck crash, and it is the section you need to read most carefully. In a normal 18-wheeler accident, the trucking company is responsible for its driver and its vehicle. The company’s commercial auto policy pays. The federal regulatory framework — the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations under 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399 — sets the standards the carrier and driver were supposed to meet, and the violations are the spine of the liability case. But when the truck was stolen, that entire structure shifts.
Let us walk you through each potential defendant and what a claim against each one looks like — honestly, including the obstacles.
The person who stole and operated the truck. This individual is the primary wrongdoer — they committed theft, they operated a commercial motor vehicle without a commercial driver’s license, they fled law enforcement, and they violated multiple provisions of the Texas Transportation Code and the Texas Penal Code’s theft statutes. If they collided with your vehicle during the pursuit, that is negligence per se — they broke criminal statutes designed to protect the public, and the violation caused your injury. But here is the hard truth: a person who steals a semi-truck and leads police on a highway chase is unlikely to have meaningful assets, insurance, or anything else to collect against. A judgment against them may be legally valid and practically empty. That does not mean the case is over — it means the investigation has to look beyond the thief.
The lawful owner or carrier of the stolen semi. This is where the case gets interesting and difficult. The carrier whose truck was stolen is itself a victim of crime — they did not dispatch this driver, they did not authorize this operation, and the truck was being used outside the scope of their business. Under standard FMCSA regulatory principles, a motor carrier is responsible for its vehicles when operated in the course of commerce. A stolen vehicle being operated by a thief is outside that scope. Commercial auto policies and MCS-90 endorsements typically exclude coverage for criminal acts and unauthorized use. So the carrier’s insurance may not respond.
But — and this is the word that keeps the case alive — the carrier may have its own civil exposure on a negligent-security or negligent-custody theory. Federal regulations include provisions about safe parking and vehicle inspection. If the truck was left unsecured — idling with keys accessible, parked in a lot with no fencing, lighting, or surveillance, or stored at a facility where theft was foreseeable — a chain of foreseeability connects that inadequate security to the theft and then to the downstream injuries on I-20. That theory requires specific evidence: how the truck was accessed, what security measures existed, whether there had been prior thefts at the same location. It is an attenuated theory, but it is a real one, and it is exactly the kind of angle that a firm with experience litigating against commercial truck operations knows how to investigate.
The facility or location where the semi was stolen from. If the truck was taken from a truck stop, a yard, a terminal, or a parking area, the entity that controlled that location may face a premises-liability or negligent-security claim. This theory requires showing that the theft was foreseeable — perhaps through prior incidents at the same location — and that reasonable security measures were absent: no fencing, no lighting, no surveillance cameras, no security guard, no gate. Commercial CCTV systems commonly overwrite on cycles as short as 7 to 30 days. If that footage exists, it shows exactly how the thief accessed the truck, and it needs to be preserved immediately.
The pursuing law enforcement agency. This is the most complex defendant and the one with the highest barriers. If the pursuing agency violated its own written pursuit policy — chasing a stolen truck through high-speed interstate traffic for what is ultimately a property crime, without adequate regard for the innocent motorists in the path — governmental liability may exist under the Texas Tort Claims Act’s motor-vehicle exception. The TTCA waives sovereign immunity for the negligent operation or use of a motor vehicle by a government employee, but it subjects any recovery to statutory damage caps that are far lower than what a catastrophic injury or wrongful death actually costs.
“A motor carrier shall retain records of duty status and supporting documents required under this part for each of its drivers for a period of not less than 6 months from the date of receipt.” — 49 CFR § 395.8(k)(1)
That regulation governs the truck’s electronic logs — but in a stolen-vehicle case, the logs tell a different story: they may show when the truck was last legally operating, when it was parked, and when the unauthorized operation began. Those logs, and the telematics data that accompanies them, are on a clock. More on that in the evidence section.
If you were injured by the stolen semi itself — or forced off the road by the pursuit — you may also have a claim against the governmental entity under the Texas Tort Claims Act. But governmental claims have shorter notice deadlines — sometimes as short as six months — that are far less forgiving than the two-year statute of limitations that applies to ordinary personal-injury claims. Missing that notice deadline can bar a claim against the governmental entity entirely, even if the two-year SOL has not run. That is why this is not a case that can wait.
The Insurance Problem: Why a Stolen Truck Is Not a Normal Truck Case
Here is the part that most people — and many lawyers who do not handle commercial vehicle cases — do not understand. In a normal truck crash, there is a coverage ladder. The driver may carry the state minimum, but an interstate carrier is federally required to carry far more — at least $750,000 for a general-freight carrier under 49 CFR § 387.9, rising to $1,000,000 for hazmat haulers and $5,000,000 for the most dangerous bulk hazmat. The same crash, stacked coverage layers, and the real recovery can be many times what a single car policy would pay.
But when the truck was stolen, that ladder may not exist. Here is why:
Commercial auto policies and MCS-90 endorsements — the federal financial-responsibility mechanism that ensures coverage for the public — typically contain exclusions for criminal acts and unauthorized use. The insurer’s position will be: this vehicle was not being operated in the course of commerce by an authorized driver; the thief was not our insured; the policy was never intended to cover a criminal fleeing police in a stolen truck. And in many cases, the insurer will be right — which is exactly why the case has to look elsewhere.
Where does “elsewhere” lead?
Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. If the stolen semi’s coverage does not respond and the thief has no insurance, your UM/UIM policy may be the most viable source of recovery. Texas requires insurers to offer UM/UIM coverage unless you rejected it in writing. This coverage kicks in when the at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured — and a thief with no insurance is about as uninsured as it gets. Your own insurer is now in the position of having to pay for something that was not your fault, and they will treat it exactly the way they treat every other claim: by trying to pay as little as possible.
The facility’s premises-liability coverage. If the negligent-security theory against the facility where the truck was stolen has merit, that facility’s commercial general liability policy may respond — and that coverage is separate from the trucking policy, with different limits, different exclusions, and a different insurer.
The governmental entity’s coverage under the TTCA. If the pursuit was conducted negligently, the governmental entity’s coverage responds — but subject to the TTCA’s damage caps, which are real and which limit what can be recovered even when liability is clear.
The thief’s personal assets. In most cases, this is a dead end. But punitive damages may be available in Texas under the Civil Practice and Remedies Code for gross negligence, and a thief fleeing police in a stolen semi at highway speeds likely meets that standard. The practical problem is collectibility — a punitive-damages judgment against a person with no assets is paper, not money.
The honest assessment is this: the insurance architecture of a stolen-vehicle pursuit case is a maze, and the path through it requires a lawyer who understands commercial auto policies, MCS-90 endorsements, UM/UIM law, premises-liability coverage, and the Texas Tort Claims Act — and who knows how to investigate which doors are open and which are closed. That is not a generalist’s job.
Texas Law: Your Rights After a Pursuit-Related Injury in Ector County
Texas law gives you real rights, but those rights operate within specific rules that you need to understand before you make decisions.
The statute of limitations. In Texas, the general statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death is two years from the date of the incident. That is the outer deadline — the last day you can file a lawsuit. But the evidence that wins your case will be gone long before that deadline arrives. The two-year clock is not your planning horizon; the evidence clock is, and it runs in days and weeks, not years.
Comparative negligence. Texas follows a modified comparative-negligence rule with a 51% bar. That means if you are found to be 51% or more at fault for what happened, you are barred from recovering anything. If you are 50% or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. In a stolen-vehicle pursuit case, the defense may try to argue that you could have avoided the truck — that you should have seen it coming, should have moved over, should have gotten off the highway. That argument is a setup, and it is exactly why the evidence of traffic conditions, pursuit route, and the raw physics of what happened matters so much. Every percentage point of fault they pin on you is money out of your recovery.
The Stowers doctrine. Texas has a unique rule called the Stowers doctrine that governs how insurers must handle settlement demands. When a plaintiff makes a reasonable settlement demand within the policy limits, the insurer has a duty to accept it if an ordinarily prudent insurer would do so. If the insurer refuses and the case goes to verdict above the policy limits, the insurer itself may be liable for the full verdict — even the amount above the policy. This is a powerful tool in commercial vehicle cases, but it only works when the demand is properly supported by sufficient evidence of liability and damages.
Governmental claims. Claims against a pursuing law enforcement agency are governed by the Texas Tort Claims Act. The TTCA waives sovereign immunity only for limited categories — including the negligent operation or use of a motor vehicle by a government employee — and subjects recovery to statutory damage caps. The notice requirements for governmental entities can be far shorter than the two-year SOL. If you think the pursuing agency may share responsibility for what happened to you, the notice clock may already be running, and it is measured in months, not years.
Punitive damages. Texas allows punitive damages — called “exemplary damages” here — upon a showing of gross negligence, fraud, or malice, under the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. A person who steals a semi-truck and flees police at highway speeds on a populated interstate has likely committed gross negligence by any definition. But Texas also caps the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages in many cases, and the collectibility problem remains: a punitive judgment against an assetless thief is symbolic, not financial.
Wrongful death. If someone you love was killed during this pursuit, Texas wrongful-death law allows surviving spouses, children, and parents to recover for mental anguish, lost earning capacity, loss of companionship and society, and funeral expenses. A survival action may also allow the estate to recover for the deceased’s pre-death pain and suffering and medical expenses. These are two separate claims with separate beneficiaries and separate damage categories, and both must be pursued within the statutory deadlines.
The Evidence That Disappears Fast — and What We Do About It
This is the section that matters most to you right now, today, while you are reading this. Because in a stolen-vehicle pursuit case, the evidence is evaporating on multiple clocks simultaneously, and every day that passes without a preservation letter is a day that footage may be overwritten, data may be erased, and physical evidence may be scrapped.
Police body-worn camera and in-car dashcam footage. These recordings establish the pursuit speed, the route, the traffic conditions, whether the semi collided with civilian vehicles, and whether the pursuing officers followed their own pursuit policy. Body-worn and dashcam systems typically overwrite on 30- to 90-day cycles. A formal preservation request must go to the pursuing agency immediately. After the overwrite cycle, that footage may be gone forever — and it is the single most important piece of evidence in a pursuit case.
Electronic Logging Device, GPS/telematics, and Engine Control Module data from the stolen semi. Even though the truck was stolen, its electronic systems were running. The ELD and telematics data provide speed, braking, location, and route information throughout the theft and pursuit. The ECM — the truck’s engine computer — records hard-brake events, last-stop data, and impact events. ELD data retention is typically as short as 8 days on the device; ECM event data can persist longer but may be overwritten by continued operation. The carrier may fail to preserve this data if not formally put on notice. A preservation demand must go to the carrier within days — not weeks.
Surveillance footage from the location where the semi was stolen. This footage shows how the vehicle was accessed — whether it was idling with keys in the ignition, whether the gate was secured, whether the lot was lit, whether anyone was on duty. Commercial CCTV systems commonly overwrite on 7- to 30-day cycles. This evidence is the foundation of any negligent-security claim against the facility or carrier, and it is on the shortest clock in the entire case.
Police dispatch records, radio traffic, and pursuit-policy documentation. These records establish whether the pursuing agency followed its own written pursuit policy and whether the decision to chase a stolen semi on a populated interstate was reasonable under the circumstances. These records are generally retained per agency policy but must be requested formally through the Texas Public Information Act. The request should be filed promptly — not after the criminal case resolves.
Scene photographs, highway debris, and vehicle damage documentation. If any collision occurred, the physical evidence of impact forces, vehicle positions, and road conditions is essential for accident reconstruction. The scene is cleared within hours. Wreckage may be moved to impound lots and released or salvaged within weeks. The damaged vehicles — yours and the semi — are evidence, and they must not be repaired, scrapped, or released until they have been photographed, measured, and documented by a qualified reconstruction expert.
Arrest records, charging documents, and criminal history. These documents are part of the public criminal record and establish the formal charges against the arrested individual. They may also reveal prior similar conduct, which is relevant to punitive damages and to establishing the foreseeability of the theft if the thief had a known history with the facility or carrier. Obtain these early, before any potential sealing or diversion.
Here is what happens when a preservation letter goes out: the carrier, the facility, and the pursuing agency are all on formal notice that the evidence must be preserved. If they let it die after that notice, the law has an answer — a court can instruct the jury to assume the lost evidence was as bad for the defense as the plaintiff says it was. That is called an adverse-inference instruction, and it is one of the most powerful consequences of spoliation. But the instruction is only available if the preservation demand was sent before the evidence was destroyed. The letter has to come first. The day you call is the day that letter goes out.
The Physics: Why a Stolen Semi on I-20 Is So Dangerous
Let us put you inside the physics of what happened on that highway, because understanding the mechanics of the danger is part of understanding why your injuries are real and why this was not just “an accident.”
A fully loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 80,000 pounds. An empty semi-truck tractor with a trailer still weighs 30,000 pounds or more. A passenger car weighs about 4,000 pounds. That is a weight ratio of 20 to 30 times — the truck outweighs your car by the weight of twenty or thirty cars stacked on top of each other. When two vehicles collide, the laws of physics are not negotiable: the lighter vehicle undergoes the larger change in velocity. That sudden, violent change in speed — the “delta-V” — is the single best predictor of how badly the people inside will be hurt. In a collision between a semi and a passenger car, the people in the car take almost all of the force.
Stopping distance compounds the danger. A loaded tractor-trailer traveling at 65 miles per hour needs roughly 525 feet to come to a complete stop under ideal conditions — about the length of two football fields. A passenger car needs about 316 feet. A stolen semi operated by an untrained driver who is fleeing police is not stopping under ideal conditions. The driver may not know how to operate the air brakes. The driver may not know the stopping distance. The driver may not care.
And then there is the pursuit itself. When a truck that size is being chased by law enforcement, the driver’s incentive is to go faster, take more risks, and ignore every rule that exists to keep the highway safe. The people in the other vehicles on I-20 — people who were doing nothing wrong, people who had no warning — are the ones who pay the price. The IIHS reports that in fatal crashes involving large trucks, about two of every three people killed are in the passenger vehicle, not the truck. That ratio tells you everything about who bears the danger in a collision between a commercial vehicle and a car.
The Injuries: What to Watch For After a Commercial Vehicle Collision
If you were on I-20 during this pursuit and you were hit, forced off the road, or took evasive action that resulted in a crash, you need to understand something about your body right now: the adrenaline of the moment may be masking serious injuries that will declare themselves over the coming hours, days, or weeks.
Traumatic brain injury. A “mild” traumatic brain injury — the kind doctors label “mild” because you were still talking at the scene — can come with a perfectly normal CT scan. That is not the exception; it is the standard presentation. The damage in a mild TBI is diffuse axonal injury — the brain’s internal wiring stretched and torn by the violent deceleration — and a standard CT was never designed to see it. Roughly one in seven people with a “mild” brain injury still has symptoms three months later: the headaches, the lost words, the short fuse, the inability to concentrate. You may notice it across the dinner table before any scan sees it. If you were in a collision, get a medical evaluation even if you feel fine — and especially if you feel “not quite right.”
Spinal injury. The forces in a commercial-vehicle collision can compress, fracture, or dislocate the spine. A spinal cord injury can mean a wheelchair for life and millions of dollars in lifetime care — the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center puts the first year of a neck-level injury at over a million dollars and lifetime care for a young adult at multiple millions. Even without cord involvement, fractures, disc injuries, and chronic pain can be permanent and life-altering.
Crush injuries and fractures. The weight disparity means the passenger vehicle’s structure may be compromised in ways that cause crush injuries to the legs, pelvis, or chest. Compartment syndrome — swelling inside a sealed muscle sheath that strangles the tissue from within — has a surgical window of roughly six hours. Pain out of proportion to the injury is the earliest warning sign, and waiting for the later signs (pulselessness, paralysis) means the limb is already dying.
Psychological trauma. Being on a highway with a stolen 18-wheeler bearing down on you — or being chased by police in your vicinity — is a psychologically devastating experience. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a formal medical diagnosis with specific criteria, and the research on trauma shows that the kind of event you lived through — sudden, violent, life-threatening, uncontrollable — is exactly the kind that produces lasting psychological injury. This is not a “soft” claim. It is a medical injury with a name, diagnostic criteria, and a measurable lifetime cost.
What Your Case Is Worth — An Honest Assessment
We are not going to tell you a number and pretend it is a promise. What we will tell you is the truth about how value is assessed in a case like this, and what the honest range looks like.
The value range for this case is extraordinarily wide because it depends entirely on facts that are not yet known.
If no civilian vehicles were struck and no one was injured during the pursuit, the civil case value is effectively zero — this is a criminal matter, not a personal-injury case. The thief goes through the criminal system, and there is no civil recovery to pursue.
If innocent motorists were struck by the stolen semi during a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 20, the case value could be catastrophic. The weight disparity between a semi and a passenger vehicle makes severe injury or death a real probability, and the potential for multiple victims multiplies the exposure. In that scenario, the case value could range from $2,000,000 to $5,000,000 or more — depending on the severity of injuries, the number of victims, the available insurance coverage, and the defendants who can be reached.
But — and this is the word that defines this case — collectibility is the primary deflator. The thief likely has no assets. The carrier’s insurance may exclude criminal use. The facility may have minimal coverage. The governmental entity enjoys immunity protections and damage caps. A viable high-value case requires identifying a defendant with coverage that actually applies — most likely a facility with adequate premises-liability coverage, a governmental entity under the motor-vehicle waiver, or your own UM/UIM policy.
We handle cases on contingency. That means we do not get paid unless we win. The fee is 33.33% before trial and 40% if the case goes to trial. We do not take a case we do not believe in, and we will tell you honestly if the collectibility obstacles are too great. But we will also tell you this: those obstacles are not a reason to give up before the investigation has even begun. They are a reason to investigate harder, faster, and with the right expertise.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The firm has recovered $50,000,000+ in aggregate, including a $2.5M+ truck-crash recovery, a $5M+ brain-injury settlement, and a $3.8M+ amputation settlement. Those results came from specific facts in specific cases — not from a formula. Your case has its own facts, and the value of your case depends on what those facts turn out to be.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook — and How We Counter Every Move
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm. He sat in the rooms where claims are valued, where reserves are set, where denial letters are drafted. He knows the playbook from the inside because he used to run it. Here are the plays you should expect — and how each one is countered.
Play 1: The friendly “just checking in” call. Within days of the incident, someone will call you. They will sound warm, concerned, sympathetic. They will ask you to “just tell us what happened” — on a recording. Everything you say is being transcribed and will be quoted back to you later. If you say “I’m feeling okay” — and you will, because adrenaline makes everyone feel okay in the first 48 hours — that statement will be used to minimize your injury claim when the real pain surfaces a week later.
The counter: Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster — not the truck’s insurer, not the facility’s insurer, not your own insurer — without a lawyer. You are not required to. “I’m not ready to give a statement yet” is a complete sentence. The adjuster’s friendliness is a tool, not a feeling.
Play 2: The fast settlement check. A check may arrive quickly — sometimes within weeks — with a release attached. The release is a legal document that, once signed, extinguishes your right to seek any further compensation, no matter how badly your injuries develop. The check arrives before the MRI results do, before the cognitive testing does, before the full extent of the harm is known. The adjuster is counting on your bills and your fear to make a small number look like a lifeline.
The counter: Never sign a release without a lawyer reviewing it. A release is permanent. The injuries it covers may be lifelong. The gap between a $5,000 quick check and the true value of a catastrophic injury from a commercial-vehicle collision is not a rounding error — it is the difference between medical care for life and medical debt for life.
Play 3: The “stolen vehicle” coverage denial. The carrier’s insurer will send a denial letter stating that the commercial auto policy excludes coverage for criminal acts and unauthorized use. They will say: this was a stolen vehicle; the thief was not our insured; the policy does not respond. That denial may be correct as to the commercial auto policy — but it is designed to make you think the entire case is dead, when in reality it only closes one door.
The counter: The denial of one policy does not end the case. It redirects the investigation — to the facility’s premises coverage, to your UM/UIM policy, to the governmental entity’s coverage under the TTCA, and to any negligent-custody theory against the carrier. An insurer’s denial letter is a map of which doors are closed, not a verdict on whether any door is open.
Play 4: The surveillance and social-media watch. The adjuster’s investigators may monitor your social media. A photograph of you at a family barbecue, smiling, will be presented at mediation as proof that you are “not really injured.” The fact that you smiled for a photo at your daughter’s birthday — through pain, because you are a parent — will be reframed as evidence that your suffering is exaggerated.
The counter: Set your social media to private. Do not post about the incident, your injuries, your activities, or your recovery. Assume everything you post will be screenshot and presented to a jury. Tell your family to do the same.
Play 5: The “you could have avoided it” argument. In a pursuit case, the defense will argue that you should have seen the truck coming, should have moved over, should have taken an exit. This is the comparative-fault play — every percentage point of fault they attribute to you reduces your recovery, and if they can push you past 50%, you recover nothing.
The counter: The evidence of traffic conditions, pursuit route, road geometry, and the physics of a 30,000-pound truck approaching a 4,000-pound car at highway speed is the answer. A reconstructionist can show that you had seconds — not minutes — to react to something no reasonable driver should ever have to anticipate. The comparative-fault argument fails when the physics shows there was no time and no escape.
How a Case Like This Is Actually Built
Here is the chronological walk of how a stolen-vehicle pursuit case is built — not a summary, but the actual sequence of work.
Week one. The preservation letters go out — to the carrier, to the facility where the truck was stolen, to the pursuing law enforcement agency, and to any other entity that holds evidence. These letters demand that CCTV footage, ELD data, ECM data, dispatch records, body-cam and dash-cam footage, key-card logs, and the physical vehicles be preserved and not destroyed. The letter is the first shot. Everything downstream depends on it.
Weeks one through four. A Texas Public Information Act request goes to the pursuing agency for all pursuit-related records: dispatch logs, radio traffic, pursuit-policy documentation, officer training records, and the department’s written pursuit policy. Medical records are gathered — the ER visit, the imaging, the specialist referrals, the therapy notes. The full medical picture begins to take shape.
Weeks one through twelve. The defendant stack is investigated. The carrier is identified — the USDOT number on the cab, the FMCSA SAFER record, the corporate structure, the insurance filings. The facility where the truck was stolen is identified — its corporate ownership, its security measures, its prior-incident history. The pursuing agency’s pursuit policy is obtained and compared against what the officers actually did. Each defendant is a separate investigation, and each one may lead to a different coverage source.
Months two through six. Experts are retained. A commercial-vehicle accident reconstructionist analyzes the semi’s speed, braking, and impact dynamics. A police-practices expert evaluates whether the pursuing agency followed its own pursuit policy and whether the decision to chase a stolen semi on a populated interstate was reasonable. A trucking-security expert assesses whether the vehicle was stored in a reasonably secure manner. If injuries are catastrophic, a life-care planner builds the cost stream of future medical care, and a forensic economist reduces it to present value.
Months three through twelve. Discovery — the formal exchange of evidence — proceeds. The records come out. The depositions happen, where the safety director, the facility manager, and the pursuing officers explain their choices under oath. The number at the end of the case is built from all of this — not from a formula, but from the accumulated weight of evidence, expert opinion, and sworn testimony.
When the evidence supports it. A Stowers demand is made — a formal settlement offer within the policy limits that triggers the insurer’s duty to accept if an ordinarily prudent insurer would. If the insurer refuses and the verdict exceeds the limits, the insurer may be liable for the full amount. This is leverage, not a guarantee — but it is a tool that only works when the evidence has been built properly.
This is the work. It is not fast. It is not easy. But it is the work that turns a stolen-truck pursuit from a news story into a case with a number attached to it — a number that pays for medical care, lost wages, and the life that was taken from you on I-20.
The First 72 Hours: A Practical Roadmap
Hour 1 through 24: Medical care first. If you were in a collision — even a minor one — get a medical evaluation. Tell the doctor everything: the headache, the dizziness, the back pain, the “not feeling right.” The medical record from the first 24 hours is the foundation of your injury claim. If you wait a week to see a doctor, the adjuster will argue the injury was not caused by the crash. If you go immediately, the timeline is locked.
Day 1 through 3: Evidence preservation. This is where the call to a lawyer matters. The preservation letters need to go out immediately — to the carrier, the facility, the pursuing agency. Every day without a letter is a day that footage may be overwritten, data may be erased, and vehicles may be scrapped. The preservation letter is the single most time-sensitive action in the entire case, and it is the reason “I’ll call a lawyer next week” can cost you the case.
Day 1 through 72: Document everything. Photograph your vehicle, your injuries, the scene if you can safely return. Keep every receipt — medical bills, towing, rental car, prescriptions. Write down your account of what happened while it is fresh. Do not post on social media. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster. Do not sign anything.
Day 1 through 72: Do not sign, do not settle, do not accept. The fast check with the release attached is designed to close your case before you know what your injuries are worth. Do not sign it. Do not accept it. Do not cash it. A check you cash may be construed as acceptance of the attached release, even if you did not read it.
When to call. Now. The consultation is free. The call costs nothing. The preservation letter costs you nothing until we win. The only thing that costs you is the time you spend not calling — because that time is measured in evidence that is disappearing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue if the truck that hit me was stolen?
Yes — but who you sue and where the money comes from will be different from a normal truck crash. The person who stole the truck is legally responsible for the harm they caused, but they may have no assets or insurance to collect against. The truck’s own commercial insurance policy may exclude coverage for criminal acts and unauthorized use. The real question is whether other defendants — the facility where the truck was stolen, the pursuing law enforcement agency, or your own uninsured/underinsured motorist carrier — have coverage that applies. That investigation is the heart of the case.
Does the trucking company’s insurance cover a stolen vehicle?
In many cases, no. Commercial auto policies and MCS-90 endorsements typically exclude coverage for criminal acts and unauthorized use. The insurer’s position is that a stolen vehicle being operated by a thief is outside the scope of commerce, and the policy was never intended to cover that situation. However, the carrier may face a separate claim for negligent security or negligent custody if the truck was left unsecured — and that claim may implicate a different type of coverage. Each policy must be examined individually.
What if the police pursuit caused my injury — can I sue the police?
Potentially, yes — under the Texas Tort Claims Act. The TTCA waives sovereign immunity for the negligent operation or use of a motor vehicle by a government employee, which includes police vehicles during a pursuit. But the claim is subject to statutory damage caps that are lower than the full value of a catastrophic injury, and the notice-of-claim deadline can be far shorter than the two-year statute of limitations. If the pursuing agency violated its own written pursuit policy — chasing a stolen truck (a property crime) through high-speed interstate traffic without adequate regard for public safety — that violation is evidence of negligence. But governmental immunity is a high wall, and these claims require a lawyer who understands the TTCA’s specific procedures.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit?
In Texas, the general statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death is two years from the date of the incident. But if your claim involves a governmental entity — like the pursuing law enforcement agency — the notice deadline may be much shorter, sometimes as short as six months. And regardless of the legal deadline, the evidence that wins your case — dashcam footage, CCTV, electronic data — disappears in days, weeks, or months, not years. The legal deadline is the last day you can file. The evidence deadline is the first day you should call.
I was not hit but I was forced off the road and crashed — do I have a case?
Potentially, yes. If you took evasive action to avoid the stolen semi and that action caused you to crash, the chain of causation may connect your injury to the pursuit. The stolen semi does not have to physically strike your vehicle for the operator to be responsible for the consequences of their reckless driving. The same defendant analysis applies — the thief, the facility, the pursuing agency, and your UM/UIM coverage are all potential paths. The facts of how you came to crash, what you saw, and how much time you had to react will be central to the case.
I feel okay right now — should I still see a doctor?
Yes. The adrenaline of a near-miss or a collision with a commercial vehicle can mask serious injuries for hours or days. Traumatic brain injury can present with a normal CT scan. Internal injuries may not declare themselves until the swelling or bleeding reaches a critical point. The defense will use any gap between the crash and your first medical visit to argue your injury was not caused by the incident. A medical evaluation creates a record — and that record is the foundation of your claim. “I feel fine” is not a medical finding. It is a feeling, and feelings change.
Will my own car insurance pay if the stolen truck’s insurance does not cover it?
Your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage may apply. Texas requires insurers to offer UM/UIM coverage unless you rejected it in writing. If the at-fault driver — the thief — has no insurance, and the truck’s commercial policy excludes coverage for the theft, your UM/UIM policy may step in as the primary source of recovery. But your own insurer will treat the claim the same way any insurer treats a claim — by trying to pay as little as possible. You need someone on your side of the table who knows how insurers value claims from the inside.
How much does a lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. We work on contingency — 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The consultation is free. The preservation letters, the investigation, the expert retention — all of that is advanced by the firm and repaid from the recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing for our time. The call to 1-888-ATTY-911 costs you nothing and may be the most important call you make.
What if I was partly at fault — can I still recover?
Yes, in most cases. Texas follows a modified comparative-negligence rule with a 51% bar. If you are 50% or less at fault, you can recover — but your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are 51% or more at fault, you are barred. In a stolen-vehicle pursuit case, the defense may try to pin fault on you — arguing you should have avoided the truck. But the physics of a 30,000-pound truck approaching a 4,000-pound car at highway speed usually show that no reasonable driver had time to react. That is exactly why the accident reconstruction and the traffic-condition evidence matter so much — every percentage point of fault they try to assign to you is money out of your recovery.
Why Attorney911 — and What Your First Call Feels Like
Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — he knows how to find the story in the evidence, how to tell it to a jury, and how to make the other side’s silence speak louder than their words. He is a competitor who hates losing, and he carries that into every case the firm takes.
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims like yours. He knows how Colossus values injuries. He knows how IME doctors are selected. He knows how surveillance is deployed and how recorded statements are engineered. He knows because he was on the other side. Now he uses that knowledge for injured clients, and he conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
We are not the firm that promises everything. We are the firm that tells you the truth — including when the truth is hard. This case has real collectibility obstacles. The stolen-vehicle exclusion is real. The governmental immunity wall is real. The thief’s empty pockets are real. But the path through those obstacles is real too — and it runs through investigation, evidence preservation, expert work, and the kind of defendant-structure analysis that a generalist does not know how to do.
Your first call costs nothing. The consultation is free. We will listen to what happened to you on I-20, ask the questions that matter, and tell you honestly whether we believe there is a case and who it is against. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you. If we are, the preservation letters go out the day you hire us — because the evidence clock is already running, and every day is a day the footage may overwrite, the data may erase, and the vehicles may be scrapped.
You have been through something no one should have to go through. A stolen 18-wheeler, fleeing police, on the same highway where you were just trying to get where you were going. That was not your fault. What happens next is the part where someone finally stands between you and the machine that is trying to minimize what happened to you.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. We serve your family in English and in Spanish — Hablamos Español. And we are available 24/7 — not an answering service, but live staff who can take your call right now.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its own facts. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — Attorney911 — Legal Emergency Lawyers™. Houston | Austin | Beaumont. 1-888-ATTY-911.