A car caught between three tractor-trailers
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Reviewed & verified by A. Jason Velez, Esq.*
Founding Attorney, 1LAW · Last reviewed March 2024
Legal Inquiry
Consumer Legal Issue
I was in a collision involving articulated lorries through no fault of my own. My car was caught between three of them and I have been injured.
Attorney Answer
With three commercial vehicles involved, the urgent work is preserving evidence that belongs to three different companies.
Liability in a multiple-vehicle collision turns on sequence: which contact happened first, and what each driver did before it. Where every other vehicle is commercial, that sequence is usually recorded rather than reconstructed — but only if the records are secured in time.
Each carrier separately holds engine control module data, electronic logging records of its driver's hours, dispatch records, maintenance files and often camera footage. None of them is obliged to keep all of it indefinitely, and some is overwritten within days. Three carriers means three preservation letters, and a letter to one does nothing for the others.
Where the statute bites, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-49(a) requires a driver not to follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of the vehicles, the traffic and the condition of the highway. Applied to a vehicle boxed between larger ones, the question is what space each of them left.
Injuries from being struck by multiple heavy vehicles frequently develop over the following days, and the medical record made now is what connects them.
What you can do
1. Get the crash report and take from it the name and USDOT number of every carrier involved. 2. Send a separate preservation letter to each carrier and each insurer — one letter does not cover all three. 3. Ask specifically for engine control module data, driver logs, dispatch records and camera footage. 4. Photograph your vehicle before it is repaired or released. 5. Speak to a Georgia attorney early, because the preservation step is the time-sensitive one.
⏱ Time limits apply. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 requires actions for injuries to the person to be brought within two years after the right of action accrues. Waiting also costs evidence — footage is overwritten and memories fade — so the practical deadline is usually much earlier than the legal one.
A Georgia attorney can tell you quickly how the facts here line up, and most will look at a matter like this at no cost.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What records do commercial carriers hold after a collision?
Engine control module data, electronic logging records of driver hours, dispatch records, maintenance files and often camera footage. Retention is limited and some material is overwritten within days.
Does one preservation letter cover every company involved?
No. Each carrier holds its own records, so a request must go to each carrier and each insurer separately.
How is fault decided in a multi-vehicle collision?
On the sequence of impacts and what each driver did beforehand. Georgia's following-too-closely standard in O.C.G.A. § 40-6-49 is commonly the provision applied.