Evidence retention rules after a truck crash
This is a table of retention rules, not a day-by-day timer. Enter the crash date to see each record against the federal minimum retention period. Practical risk is listed separately from what the rule requires.
Last reviewed against eCFR on 2026-08-19.
A preservation letter changes this analysis. Once a party knows evidence is relevant to a claim, the duty to preserve it can attach regardless of the minimum retention period. The table below shows what the rules require, not what a company is permitted to destroy after it has been put on notice.
| Evidence | Who holds it | Federal minimum retention | Practical risk | Against this crash date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Records of duty status and supporting documents | Motor carrier | 6 months after receipt49 CFR 395.8(k) | Often destroyed at the minimum | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| Driver qualification file | Motor carrier | Duration of employment plus 3 years49 CFR 391.51 | Document-specific rules inside that window | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| Accident register | Motor carrier | 3 years after the crash49 CFR 390.15(b) | Reliably kept | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| ELD data | Carrier and ELD vendor | No single universal period49 CFR 395.22 | Vendor retention policies vary | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| ECM / engine control module | Carrier, or wherever the truck went | NoneNo federal minimum | Overwritten by continued operation or lost at salvage | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| Dashcam and forward-facing video | Carrier or telematics vendor | NoneNo federal minimum | Frequently a 30 to 90 day loop | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| Dispatch messages and GPS history | Carrier or telematics vendor | NoneNo federal minimum | Vendor-dependent | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
| Nearby business surveillance video | Third parties | NoneNo federal minimum | Often 7 to 30 days | Enter a crash date to compare against the minimum. |
Three ideas stay separate: what the regulation requires, what happens operationally, and whether a preservation letter has been sent. Download the letter template.
Want a lawyer's read on your crash? Minnesota cases are handled directly. Crashes in other states are matched with a qualified truck-crash firm licensed there.
What each record is and what it proves
- Records of duty status and supporting documents
- The driver's hours-of-service logs plus the paperwork that can check them: fuel receipts, toll records, bills of lading, weigh tickets.
- This is how a fatigued-driver case gets proven. The supporting documents matter as much as the logs, because a receipt with a timestamp can contradict a log that says the driver was asleep in the bunk.
- Driver qualification file
- The carrier's own file on the driver: employment application, prior-employer safety checks, medical certificate, drug and alcohol test results, road test, and violation history.
- This file is the backbone of a negligent hiring or negligent retention claim against the company itself. If the carrier hired a driver with a known bad record, the proof is in its own paperwork.
- Accident register
- The carrier's required log of every recordable crash involving its trucks over the past three years: date, location, injuries, fatalities, hazmat releases.
- Pattern evidence. A carrier with a string of similar wrecks has a notice problem, and that feeds negligent supervision claims and, in the right case, punitive damages.
- ELD data
- The electronic logging device record: a tamper-resistant digital log of driving time, engine status, and location, usually stored with a third-party vendor as well as the carrier.
- The objective check against a doctored paper story. ELD data timestamps where the truck was and when it was moving, which either corroborates the driver's account or destroys it.
- ECM / engine control module
- The truck's black box. The engine control module records speed, brake application, throttle position, and cruise control status in the seconds before a hard stop or impact.
- Often the single most important record for reconstructing the crash itself. It dies quietly two ways: the truck returns to service and overwrites it, or the truck is totaled and the module goes to salvage.
- Dashcam and forward-facing video
- Forward-facing road video, and on many fleets a driver-facing camera that captures phone use, drowsiness, and distraction. Usually managed by a telematics vendor, not the carrier.
- Video of the crash ends most liability disputes on the spot. Most systems record on a loop and overwrite themselves within 30 to 90 days, and nothing in the regulations requires anyone to save it.
- Dispatch messages and GPS history
- The message traffic between dispatch and the driver, plus the truck's GPS position history from the telematics system.
- This is where company pressure shows up in writing: an impossible delivery window, a message sent while the truck was moving, a route that only works by skipping required rest. Retention is whatever the vendor's contract says.
- Nearby business surveillance video
- Cameras on gas stations, warehouses, and storefronts near the crash that happened to catch it. Held by businesses with no connection to the case.
- The shortest fuse on this table. Third parties owe no retention duty at all and most systems overwrite within 7 to 30 days, so this footage is usually gone before anyone thinks to ask for it.
Why the preservation letter goes out first
Three reasons, and they compound. First, several of these clocks are already running and some are short: surveillance video can be gone in a week, dashcam loops overwrite in a month or two, ECM data dies the moment the tractor goes back on the road, and hours-of-service logs can be lawfully shredded at six months.
Second, the letter changes the legal ground. The federal minimums are a floor for regulators, not a duty owed to an injured person. Once the carrier receives a preservation letter, a duty to preserve attaches, and destruction after that point is spoliation, which courts punish with sanctions and adverse-inference instructions. Before the letter, routine destruction is free. After it, every destroyed record becomes a problem for the carrier at trial.
Third, the other side is already collecting. Carrier insurers send rapid-response teams to serious crashes within hours to do their own downloads and photographs. They will have the evidence. The letter, sent to the carrier, its insurer, the telematics and ELD vendors, and nearby businesses, is the one inexpensive tool that keeps the record available to both sides. The letter template is here.