Hours-of-Service Violation Truck Accident Lawyer in Colorado

Federal regulations under 49 C.F.R. § 395.3^[1] set the core limits for drivers of property-carrying commercial trucks. A driver must take 10 consecutive hours off duty before driving, may not drive after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, and may drive no more than 11 total hours during that window. A driver may not drive if more than 8 cumulative hours have passed since the last off-duty (or equivalent) period of at least 30 minutes; that break can be satisfied by off-duty time, sleeper berth time, on-duty non-driving time, or a combination of the three. A driver may not drive after accumulating 60 hours on duty in 7 consecutive days for a carrier that does not operate every day of the week, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days for a carrier that does. A period of at least 34 consecutive hours off duty can restart the applicable 7- or 8-day period.

The short-haul exception under 49 C.F.R. § 395.1(e)^[3] allows qualifying drivers who stay within a 150-air-mile radius and return to their reporting location within the required time to use simplified time records instead of ordinary records of duty status and ELD logging. Qualifying short-haul drivers are also excepted from the 30-minute driving-interruption requirement, but the other hours-of-service limits above still apply. The underlying safety purpose is the same regardless: driving tired causes crashes, and these rules are the government’s attempt to prevent that.

Most drivers who are required to maintain records of duty status must use an ELD, subject to the exceptions listed in 49 C.F.R. § 395.8^[2], which include certain short-term, driveaway-towaway, and pre-2000 vehicle operations. An ELD automatically records driving time and other required vehicle data, while drivers still enter or confirm certain non-driving duty statuses such as off-duty and sleeper-berth time. ELD data is generally harder to falsify than the paper logs it replaced, but it is not infallible. Drivers can still misclassify duty status, and devices can malfunction or be used incorrectly.

That is why ELD data is only part of the picture. Fuel receipts, toll records, dispatch logs, bills of lading, and GPS or telematics data can corroborate what the ELD shows, or expose a gap between the official record and what actually happened on the road.

Violations we regularly investigate include:

• Driving beyond the 11-hour limit or the 14-hour on-duty window
• Skipping or shortening the required 30-minute break
• Exceeding the 60-hour/7-day or 70-hour/8-day weekly limits
• Falsifying logs or ELD entries to disguise actual driving time
• Using the short-haul exception when a driver does not actually qualify for it

A single violation can matter. Potentially, a pattern of violations, especially one that lines up with pressure from dispatch or unrealistic delivery schedules, often matters more, because it points to the carrier’s own practices rather than one driver’s bad day.

Federal rules generally require carriers to retain records of duty status and supporting documents for at least six months from receipt, 49 C.F.R. § 395.8^[2], which is one reason early preservation efforts can matter. A written preservation request directed to the carrier and other parties or custodians who may possess relevant records can help identify the evidence that should be preserved before ordinary retention periods expire. Our evidence after a truck accident page covers this process in more detail, including how preservation letters work and what an attorney can do once litigation is filed.

A documented hours-of-service violation can be relevant evidence in a Colorado negligence case, but Colorado law does not treat every federal safety-regulation violation as automatically fitting the negligence per se doctrine. In Canape v. Petersen, 897 P.2d 762 (Colo. 1995)^[6], the Colorado Supreme Court held that a federal OSHA violation could not support a negligence per se instruction. In Scott v. Matlack, Inc., 39 P.3d 1160 (Colo. 2002)^[7], the court clarified that Canape does not bar federal regulations from being admitted as some evidence of the standard of care in an industry, even where negligence per se itself does not apply^[8]. Whether negligence per se applies to a given FMCSA hours-of-service violation depends on the specific rule and the facts of the case. At minimum, the regulation may be relevant evidence of the standard of care and whether the driver or carrier acted reasonably.

A documented hours-of-service violation can support an argument that fatigue risk or scheduling pressure was present, particularly when combined with other evidence such as driver statements, sleep history, dispatch records, or crash circumstances, which speaks directly to whether the driver and the carrier that scheduled them acted with reasonable care.

Colorado generally has a three-year limitations period for motor-vehicle injury claims, C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n)^[5], subject to exceptions. If the crash resulted in a death, a different and generally shorter deadline applies: Colorado ^[8], not the three-year window described above. Contact us promptly so we can confirm which deadline applies to your situation.