Speeding Truck Accident Lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky

• Posted limits: Kentucky’s default limit is 65 mph on interstates and parkways, and the Transportation Cabinet can raise some rural interstate segments to 70 (KRS 189.390).
• Too fast for conditions: every driver must go no faster than is “reasonable and prudent” for traffic and road conditions (KRS 189.390(2)). A truck doing the limit in rain, fog, a work zone or stopped traffic can still be speeding.
• Federal rule on schedules: a motor carrier can’t schedule a run, or allow a driver to operate, in a way that requires the truck to go faster than the speed limit to make the delivery (49 CFR 392.6).

No federal rule currently requires speed limiters on heavy trucks, but many carriers set them anyway. When a company’s own trucks are governed and this one wasn’t, or the setting was raised, that is evidence.

• Engine control module (“black box”) data: speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before impact. See truck black box evidence.
• Telematics and GPS: many fleets track speed in real time and flag speeding events.
• Logs and dispatch records: a delivery window that could only be met by speeding points to the company, not just the driver.
• Camera video: the truck’s own cameras, nearby businesses and TRIMARC traffic cameras. See TRIMARC camera footage.
• Reconstruction: crush damage, skid marks and final positions. See accident reconstruction.
• The driver’s history: prior speeding tickets and company warnings in the driver qualification file, and the carrier’s public safety record. See FMCSA safety records.

The driver, and in most cases the trucking company, which is responsible for its driver’s conduct on the job and for its own decisions about schedules, pay structure and supervision. A company that pays by the mile, sets impossible delivery windows or ignores speeding alerts can be liable for its own negligence. See trucking company liability. Extreme speed can support punitive damages in Kentucky when the conduct shows gross negligence (KRS 411.184).

• Rear-end crashes into slowed or stopped traffic, often at the back of a work zone. See work zone accidents.
• Rollovers on ramps and curves, including the Spaghetti Junction ramps. See Spaghetti Junction accidents.
• Jackknife crashes after hard braking.
• Chain-reaction crashes. See multi-vehicle pileups.

Interstate carriers hauling general freight must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage (49 CFR 387.9). Kentucky’s pure comparative fault rule means your recovery is reduced only by your own share of fault, if any (KRS 411.182). Most motor vehicle injury lawsuits must be filed within two years after the injury or the last PIP payment, whichever is later (KRS 304.39-230(6)).

Larry Forman has tried 50+ jury trials and won 95% of them. See our Louisville truck accident lawyer page and speeding car accidents.