The minutes after a crash can shape much of what follows: whether anyone ends up hurt worse, what the evidence shows and how the claim reads months later. Drivers who know the steps beforehand tend to handle them better.
Quick answer
Make the scene safe, call 911 if anyone is hurt or the road is blocked, photograph everything, exchange information and leave fault to the police and insurers. Lock the dashcam footage that day. The DMV's rules generally call for an SR-1 within 10 days when damage tops $1,000 to any one person or anyone is hurt or killed; your broker can file it. Report the crash to your insurer promptly, preserve footage and telematics and follow up with the driver.
Most company truck crashes are small: a mirror clipped in a parking lot, a tap at a red light, a scrape backing into a loading dock. A few are serious. Standing on the shoulder, the driver can't tell which kind this one will become, and a fender-bender can turn into an injury claim weeks later. That's why the same routine makes sense every time, however minor it looks.
The routine serves three audiences. The people at the scene need safety first. The DMV generally expects a report when damage or injuries cross its thresholds. And your insurer needs prompt notice and clean evidence, because commercial vehicles can draw inflated and staged claims; the California Department of Insurance has warned that stagers target high-value vehicles such as commercial vehicles. Our guide to staged collision fraud and how dashcams help explains how those schemes work.
Official sources
Put these steps on a card in every glove box with the insurance ID card and a pen. Under stress, a checklist beats memory.
California's rules generally call for a report to the DMV on form SR-1 within 10 days of a crash that causes property damage over $1,000 to any one person, injures anyone, however slightly, or kills anyone. The DMV asks for it in addition to any report made to the police, the CHP or your insurer, so an officer's report at the scene usually doesn't take its place.
The duty sits with the driver, but the DMV accepts the SR-1 from the driver's insurance agent, broker or legal representative. For a company truck, it usually goes more smoothly when the office and the broker handle it together: The driver supplies the facts, and the broker completes the form with the policy details while they're fresh. The DMV takes the report online; a paper copy is likely to take longer to process.
A thousand dollars isn't much damage on a late-model car or truck. A bumper cover with parking sensors can reach it on its own. When in doubt, file, and keep a copy of what went in, with the date, in the claim file.
Official sources
Report every crash to your insurer through your broker promptly, ideally before the day ends, even when the damage looks minor or the other driver offers to settle privately. Commercial auto policies generally require prompt notice, and a late report can leave the adjuster chasing witnesses whose memories have already faded.
Send what an adjuster needs to get started:
Don't negotiate with the other driver, pay for their damage out of pocket without talking to your broker or let a shop start repairs on a truck in a disputed claim before the adjuster has documented it.
It helps to know which part of the policy answers which loss. The other party's vehicle and injuries typically fall under your liability coverage. Damage to your own truck is usually paid under physical damage coverage for trucks, if the unit carries it, less the deductible. If the other driver was at fault and uninsured, your uninsured motorist coverage may come into play. Your broker can walk you through which pieces may apply before you decide how to handle the repair.
Evidence has a shelf life. Cameras record over old clips, telematics systems purge detailed data, and a repaired truck can't show its damage again. ATRI's review of trucking verdicts found that once spoliation, meaning evidence lost or destroyed, is proven, jurors tend to side with the plaintiff almost from the start. The same review found the defense lost every case involving an hours-of-service or logbook violation, which is a reason to keep time records as carefully as video.
Write the hold down: who saved what, when and where it's kept. Suspend routine deletion of anything connected to the crash until the claim and any lawsuit are closed. If a letter arrives from the other side's attorney asking you to preserve evidence, send it to your broker that day. Our page on fleet safety and claims defense covers building cameras and telematics into a written program.
Official sources
Start with the person. A driver who was just in a crash may be hurt without realizing it, rattled or worried about the job. Check in, and keep that conversation separate from the question of fault. An employee's own injury typically runs through workers' compensation, not the auto policy.
Then review the crash within a week or so: what happened, whether it was preventable and what changes. Pull up the footage and telematics with the driver rather than about the driver; a review that feels like a trial can teach people to stop reporting small incidents. Coaching, retraining and a different route or vehicle are common outcomes. Record the decision in the driver's file.
The crash will likely surface on the driver's record. Employers enrolled in the DMV's Employer Pull Notice program receive reports when accidents, convictions or suspensions post to an enrolled driver's record. If the driver holds a Class A or B license, also ask your drug and alcohol testing provider whether the crash calls for a test; our guide to when a box truck needs a Class B license covers which drivers fall under those rules.
Official sources
Crashes tend to go better with a plan written in advance: a card in every cab, a named person in the office who takes the call, cameras set to lock events and your broker's claim line in every phone. Walk each new hire through it on day one.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. The DMV decides SR-1 questions, and your insurer and attorney handle liability, so confirm your situation with them. For the state's other truck rules, see our page on what California requires of business trucks. Our California commercial auto insurance page covers the policy itself, and you can start a quote for your fleet whenever you're ready.
No. When the other driver in a California crash offers cash to keep insurers out, the company truck's driver should decline, take the information and call the office, because injuries can surface after the handshake.
Sending a damaged unit straight to the body shop in a disputed claim can erase evidence the adjuster or an expert may need. Park it, photograph it and wait until the damage is documented.
A preservation letter from the other side's attorney raises the stakes on every file tied to the crash. Getting it to your broker and insurer that day helps them confirm the footage, telematics and records are on hold.
Damage and injuries to others typically run through the truck's liability coverage, while an employee hurt in the crash is usually a workers' comp claim. Report both, through the right channels, that day.
Official resources
Requirements change without notice. Confirm what applies to your fleet with the agency before relying on it.
Why California contractors who never cross the state line often still need a USDOT number, how the CA number and Motor Carrier Permit build on it and how to keep both current.
Read the guideWho has to be enrolled in the DMV's pull notice program, what it costs, how the electronic switch works and why enrolling every driver can help at renewal.
Read the guideWhich contractor trucks fall under CARB's Clean Truck Check, what the fees and test schedule look like, how DMV registration holds work and where the Truck and Bus and Advanced Clean Fleets rules stand.
Read the guideHow the 26,001-lb GVWR line, axle count and towing usually decide a box truck driver's license class in California, and the pull notice, testing, medical and inspection rules that can follow a heavier truck.
Read the guideTiming depends on the carriers and your loss history.
Have ready: vehicle list with VINs, driver list, current declarations page, loss runs.
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