TruckAccidentLawyer.wiki, a sourced reference on large-truck crashes, has published a new entry that sets out the periods that begin to run after a crash involving a tractor-trailer: post-accident testing windows, federal record-retention minimums for motor carriers and Georgia filing deadlines. The entry, titled "Timeline of records and deadlines after a tractor-trailer crash," was added to the site's topics section on October 30, 2026.
The entry takes up a question raised in recent coverage, including a TechBullion article on when to hire a tractor trailer accident lawyer after a crash. Rather than suggest a time, the entry lists the periods fixed by federal regulation and Georgia law and shows how they compare.
The timeline starts in the first hours. Under 49 CFR 382.303, an employer must test its surviving driver after a covered crash involving a death, and after certain injury or tow-away crashes when the driver receives a citation for a moving violation arising from the crash. Attempts at a required alcohol test stop after eight hours, and attempts at a controlled-substances test stop after 32 hours.
Retention periods follow. Driver vehicle inspection reports must be kept for three months from preparation, and records of duty status, including those recorded on an electronic logging device, must be kept with their supporting documents for at least six months. Truck maintenance records must be kept for one year where the vehicle is housed or maintained and for six months after it leaves the carrier's control, a periodic inspection report for 14 months, the accident register for three years after each accident and a driver qualification file generally for the length of employment plus three years. Positive drug results, alcohol results of 0.02 or more and test refusals are kept for five years.
The entry separates those minimums from the duty to preserve evidence. Citing the Supreme Court of Georgia's 2015 decision in Phillips v. Harmon, it explains that the duty arises when litigation is reasonably foreseeable to the party controlling the evidence. Notice from the injured person is one route, and the Court also pointed to circumstances such as the type and extent of the injury and the defendant's own investigation. A preservation letter can name the vehicles, electronic data and records to be kept, though it does not prove what existed or what was lost.
On the claimant's side, the entry lists Georgia's general statute of limitations for a truck accident lawsuit over injuries to the person, two years after the right of action accrues, subject to exceptions, and the four-year period for damage to personal property such as a vehicle. Claims against government bodies carry earlier requirements. A written claim against a city must be presented within six months of the event, a claim against a county within 12 months after it accrues, with a separate period for minors and others under a disability, and written notice of a state tort claim within 12 months of the date the loss was or ought to have been discovered.
"A lawsuit filed well inside Georgia's two-year period can still come after a three-month or six-month retention period has ended," a spokesperson for TruckAccidentLawyer.wiki said. "The entry puts the carrier's clocks and the claimant's clocks side by side and ties each one to the regulation or statute behind it. None of those sources sets a time for hiring a lawyer, and the entry does not suggest one."
The entry draws on the FMCSA regulations as published in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Georgia statutes and the Phillips decision, and each statement carries a cited source with a checked date. Each subject links to the site's fuller entry on it, such as the entry on carrier records and spoliation.
Like the rest of the publication, the entry is general information rather than legal advice for a particular claim. It notes that the federal retention periods are minimums for a carrier's routine recordkeeping rather than deadlines for injured people, and that the testing windows govern only when required tests must be attempted.
The release and its later syndicated copies are collected on a companion page for this semi truck accident attorney reference announcement.
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