Oregon Trucking Accident Settlement Calculator

The injury sets the national range used for your Oregon truck accident claim. The national soft tissue injury range is $25,000 to $150,000. National ranges for paralysis and wrongful death run from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000+.

Source: the national trucking guide linked in the first row supplies the national ranges by injury, current as of November 8, 2026.

Oregon changes how that claim is paid. The truck’s policy has its own payment limit, your PIP pays the first medical bills, and each responsible driver or company owes its own fault share. Oregon’s rules for pain and suffering and your own share of fault also affect recovery. Compensation for your losses is called damages.

Sources: ORS chapter 825; ORS chapter 742; ORS chapter 31; Oregon Laws 2021, chapter 478 (Senate Bill 193)

A truck hauling entirely inside Oregon must carry at least $750,000 for each crash if its declared weight with its load is over 26,000 pounds. For a truck and trailer, that is their combined declared loaded weight.

The Oregon rule covers companies hauling their own goods as well as companies paid to haul someone else’s goods. Oregon calls both a motor carrier, meaning a trucking company in this guide. The $750,000 is one combined limit for everyone injured and all property damaged in the crash (Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 825.005, 825.022, and 825.160; Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 740-040-0020).

The insurance requirement in ORS 825.160 does not apply when the combined declared loaded weight is 26,000 pounds or less. A smaller truck still needs Oregon’s ordinary vehicle injury minimums: $25,000 for one person and $50,000 for one crash.

Trucks that cross state lines

A for-hire truck carrying ordinary freight across state lines needs at least $750,000 when its gross vehicle weight rating is 10,001 pounds or more. Federal law sets higher amounts for hazardous loads (Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), title 49, section 387.9).

A truck carrying hazardous materials, substances, or waste entirely inside Oregon follows those federal amounts through OAR 740-100-0010(2)(b). A minimum insurance requirement tells you the least coverage a truck must have; it does not set your claim’s value.

Your underinsured motorist coverage

Your own underinsured motorist coverage can add compensation when the truck’s insurance falls short of your losses. Oregon auto policies must include uninsured motorist coverage with underinsurance coverage. For policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2016, that coverage pays damages you are legally entitled to recover up to its own limit (ORS 742.502; Senate Bill 411).

For uninsured or underinsured benefits, the two-year requirement is met by an agreement on the amount, arbitration, a lawsuit against your insurer, or a lawsuit against the uninsured driver (ORS 742.504(12)(a)).

Sources: ORS chapter 825; OAR chapter 740, division 40 (motor carrier insurance); ODOT Commerce and Compliance Division, Insurance Requirements; Oregon DMV, insurance requirements; 49 CFR 387.9; OAR chapter 740, division 100 (federal safety rules adopted); ORS chapter 742; Oregon Laws 2015, chapter 5 (Senate Bill 411)

The PIP policy covering your car pays first if you were driving or riding in it. If a truck hit you while you were walking or cycling, use your own household’s auto PIP coverage.

Oregon requires PIP on private passenger vehicle policies. That requirement excludes a semi, log truck, garbage truck, or tanker. The definition also excludes a pickup or panel truck used for wholesale or retail delivery other than farming. The commercial truck’s policy therefore does not have to provide PIP for you (ORS 742.518 and 742.520).

PIP covers medical expenses incurred within two years of injury, with a $15,000 total medical limit. PIP pays without waiting for a decision on who caused the accident. Oregon still puts the remaining losses on the at-fault side through liability insurance (ORS 742.520 and 742.524).

If a disability lasts at least 14 days, PIP replaces 70% of lost work income, up to $3,000 per month for a maximum of 52 weeks.

Example: the monthly PIP wage limit

For example, you earned $5,000 a month before a disability lasting at least 14 days. The computed 70% benefit is $3,500, so the monthly payment is limited to $3,000. The maximum payment period is 52 weeks.

When the truck’s insurer pays compensation, your PIP insurer can seek repayment. For policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, repayment from your recovery comes after you receive full compensation for the injuries (ORS 742.544; Senate Bill 421). The Oregon car accident guide explains PIP and repayment in full.

Oregon hospital payments for injury treatment

The Oregon Health Authority’s 2024 Hospital Payment Report lists a $40,047.68 middle payment for a hospital stay with surgery to fix a broken bone using plates, screws, or rods. A calculation using the Oregon Health Authority’s 2024 bone-surgery hospital payment shows that it is more than two and a half times the $15,000 PIP medical limit.

Each figure in the Oregon Health Authority’s 2024 table is the middle payment: half of the payments were lower and half were higher.

The Oregon Health Authority report combines commercial insurers’ payments to the hospital with patients’ copays, deductibles, and coinsurance. A stay’s figure covers the whole hospital stay and excludes a surgeon’s separate bill. The report says these figures do not measure the patient’s own payment, the hospital’s billed charge, or the health plan’s maximum allowed amount.

Sources: ORS chapter 742; Oregon Laws 2019, chapter 460 (Senate Bill 421); Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Hospital Payment Report; Oregon Health Authority, 2024 Hospital Payment Report data file

A trucking company is responsible for its employee’s careless driving within the employee’s job. A freight broker that carelessly chose an unsafe trucking company also faces a state-law claim for an interstate load, if the injured person proves it.

The driver’s employer and a leased truck

An employer need not have done anything wrong itself to answer for an employee’s conduct within the job. The Oregon Supreme Court explained that rule in Chesterman v. Barmon on April 12, 1988, a case about employee conduct rather than a truck accident. The court’s tests ask whether the conduct was within the job’s authorized time and place, served the employer at least in part, and was the kind of work the employee was hired to do.

For an owner-operator working under a licensed trucking company’s authority, the lease must give that company exclusive possession, control, and use of the truck and complete responsibility for its operation during the lease. The same federal rule says those lease terms do not decide whether the driver is an employee (49 CFR 376.12(c)).

The freight broker’s choice of trucking company

A freight broker arranges a load and hires the trucking company. Since May 14, 2026, federal trucking law does not block a state-law claim that a broker carelessly hired an unsafe trucking company whose truck injured someone.

The U.S. Supreme Court reached that unanimous, 9-0 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC. The claim followed an Illinois collision in which a truck struck the injured person’s tractor-trailer. The claim said the broker knew or should have known from the trucking company’s safety rating that hiring it was likely to cause injury crashes. The Court allowed the claim past the federal-law objection; the injured person still has to prove negligent hiring.

The Court left open a different provision covering brokers that arrange transportation inside one state. A concurring opinion by Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Alito, said the amended law does not permit state tort suits over that intrastate work. A broker claim for a load staying inside Oregon is therefore less settled than a claim for an interstate load.

Each defendant’s share of the damages

Oregon uses several liability: each responsible driver or company owes its own percentage of the damages. The fault share is calculated on the total damages before settlement payments are subtracted (ORS 31.610).

If a share cannot be collected, a request filed within one year after the judgment becomes final lets the court divide the unpaid share among the other parties by fault percentage. Your own fault counts in that division. A defendant takes no added share when its fault is 25% or less, or when your fault equals or exceeds its fault.

Example: one defendant cannot pay

For example, a jury finds $1,000,000 in damages and assigns 60% fault to the trucking company, 30% to another driver, and 10% to you. The company owes $600,000 and the other driver owes $300,000. Your $100,000 share is unpaid.

If the other driver’s $300,000 cannot be collected, the court divides it between the company and you in the ratio 60 to 10. The computed extra company share is $257,142.86, and $42,857.14 remains unpaid as your share. A company found 25% or less at fault would owe no added share.

Sources: Chesterman v. Barmon, 305 Or 439 (1988) (Harvard Caselaw Access Project copy); 49 CFR 376.12; Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, 608 U.S. 219 (2026), No. 24-1238 (U.S. Supreme Court, preliminary print); ORS chapter 31

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) recorded 1,696 commercial motor vehicle crashes on Oregon public roads in 2024. ODOT’s 2024 Quick Facts report counts 59 fatal crashes, 366 injury crashes, and 1,271 property-damage-only crashes, with 73 people killed and 488 injured.

ODOT’s motor carrier figures count commercial vehicle crashes involving a death, an injury treated away from the scene, or disabling damage requiring a vehicle to be towed. ODOT counts an injury crash when someone left the scene for medical care. The 2024 Quick Facts figures are dated May 29, 2025.

Fault and truck driver errors

ODOT’s Federal Reportable Motor Carrier Crashes and Rates lists 877 truck-at-fault crashes in 2024: 825 involved truck driver fault and 52 involved a truck mechanical failure. ODOT’s Federal Reportable Motor Carrier Crashes and Rates also records 844 truck-at-fault crashes in 2023, 939 in 2022, and 749 in 2021. The ODOT Commerce and Compliance Division’s May 2026 safety plan says car drivers were at fault in 41% of commercial truck crashes in 2024.

The division’s safety plan identifies driver behavior as the leading cause of Oregon truck-at-fault crashes year after year. Speeding, leaving the lane, and following too closely repeatedly head its list.

ODOT’s 2024 Quick Facts ranks truck driver errors in this order: speed, failure to stay in the lane, following too closely, failure to yield, inattention, improper lane change, improper turn, sleep or fatigue, tire failure, and disregarding a sign. The Oregon speed rules explain the limits a truck must follow.

Oregon truck safety corridors

The division’s May 2026 plan identifies I-5 from Tualatin to the Marquam Bridge as the truck safety corridor with the most crashes. The same plan says crashes in the Siskiyou Summit corridor continue to grow steadily.

ODOT’s Public Safety page lists the following corridors for focused truck enforcement where truck crashes are above average:

• Siskiyou Summit on I-5, mileposts 2 to 9.
• Weaver to Roberts Mountain on I-5, mileposts 108 to 117.
• Salem on I-5, mileposts 252 to 260.
• Tualatin to Portland and the Marquam Bridge on I-5, mileposts 289 to 300.
• West Linn to Clackamas on I-205, mileposts 8 to 14.
• Hood River to Mosier on I-84, mileposts 63 to 73.
• Emigrant Hill, also called Cabbage Hill.
• Ladd Canyon.
• Nelson Point to Weatherby on I-84, mileposts 331 to 340.
• North Bend to Coos Bay on U.S. 101, mileposts 233 to 243.

Why the federal death count is different

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in Large Trucks: 2024 Data, counts 83 deaths in Oregon: 9 people in the truck, 58 in other vehicles, and 16 outside vehicles, including people walking or cycling. NHTSA’s 2024 figures, which are not yet final, include every truck over 10,000 pounds, whether commercial or not; ODOT’s 2024 total of 73 counts commercial vehicles under its reporting definition. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2023 report counts 97 Oregon deaths: 15 in trucks, 57 in other vehicles, and 25 outside vehicles.

Sources: ODOT, 2024 Oregon Motor Carrier Traffic Crashes Quick Facts; ODOT, Federal Reportable Motor Carrier Crashes and Rates, 2021-2024; ODOT Commerce and Compliance Division, Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Action Plan, May 2026; ODOT Commerce and Compliance Division, Public Safety (truck safety corridors); National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Facts, "Large Trucks: 2024 Data" (DOT HS 813 816)

Oregon’s default highway limit is 55 miles per hour for a motor truck rated over 10,000 pounds or a truck tractor rated over 8,000 pounds. Different posted limits and the highway sections listed in ORS 811.111 change that rule.

A truck also has to move at a speed that is reasonable for traffic, intersections, the road, weather, and visibility. Driving below the posted number can still be too fast for rain or fog (ORS 811.100). Speed leads ODOT’s 2024 truck driver error list.

The statute lists truck speeds of 60 or 65 miles per hour on selected highway sections. Inside a city, the higher limits listed for U.S. 95, U.S. 20, U.S. 197, and U.S. 97 do not apply (ORS 811.111(13)).

Chains and time behind the wheel

When a highway is posted for chains, the vehicle must carry or use the traction equipment the posted conditions require. Chains must be used on towing vehicles and on vehicles rated over 10,000 pounds. For a heavy truck registered under ORS chapter 826, the presumptive fine for failing to use required chains or traction tires is $880 (ORS 815.140; OAR 734-017-0015).

Oregon adopts federal truck safety rules as in effect April 1, 2026, with changes for trucks operating inside the state. A driver hauling property inside Oregon cannot exceed 12 hours of driving after ten consecutive hours off, or drive beyond the 16th hour after coming on duty following those ten hours off. Driving also stops after 70 hours on duty in seven days, or 80 hours in eight days when the company operates daily (OAR 740-100-0010(2)(i)).

Alcohol and required post-accident testing

A commercial driver cannot perform safety-sensitive work at an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or higher, and cannot use alcohol within four hours before going on duty or operating the commercial vehicle (49 CFR 382.201 and 392.5). Oregon’s driving-under-the-influence law uses 0.08 for every driver; its commercial-driver license suspension law uses 0.04 (ORS 813.010, 813.130, and 813.410).

After an accident with a death, the company must test the surviving truck driver for alcohol and drugs. When someone is taken from the scene for medical treatment, or a vehicle is towed with disabling damage, testing requires a moving-violation ticket arising from the accident for the truck driver: within eight hours for an alcohol test and within 32 hours for a drug test (49 CFR 382.303).

If the alcohol test has not happened within two hours, the company must write down why. Attempts to test for alcohol stop at eight hours, and attempts to test for drugs stop at 32 hours, with written reasons for tests not completed.

Sources: ORS chapter 811; ODOT, 2024 Oregon Motor Carrier Traffic Crashes Quick Facts; ORS chapter 815; OAR chapter 734, division 17 (chains and traction tires); OAR chapter 740, division 100 (federal safety rules adopted); 49 CFR 382.201; 49 CFR 392.5; ORS chapter 813; 49 CFR 382.303

Driver hours records must stay with the company for at least six months after receipt. Daily vehicle inspection reports have a three-month minimum, so send a written request for records and electronic data soon after the accident.

These are the minimum times required by the listed federal rules; the company may discard records after those periods. Among driving records, hours logs have the six-month minimum. A court can order the company to keep records.

If a party willfully hides or destroys evidence, Oregon law presumes the evidence would have hurt that party. The party must then prove that the presumed fact is more probably untrue than true. The presumption concerns willful suppression (ORS 40.135(1)(c) and 40.120).

Who owns the crash recorder data?

The vehicle owner owns the event data recorder information under Oregon law. Others need the owner’s written consent unless a statutory court-order exception applies. The statutory exceptions concern police investigation of a crime, emergency response, or a petition by the vehicle owner’s insurer (ORS 105.928, 105.935, and 105.938).

Subscription services recording travel history or sending data to a central communications system fall outside those provisions (ORS 105.945). No Oregon appellate ruling was found on whether the federal definition borrowed by ORS 105.925 covers a heavy truck’s engine computer or data sent to the trucking company’s own system.

An insurer cannot make payment or settlement of the vehicle owner’s claim depend on the owner consenting to data retrieval or use (ORS 105.932).

Sources: 49 CFR 395.8; 49 CFR 396.11; 49 CFR 396.3; 49 CFR 391.51; 49 CFR 390.15; 49 CFR 382.401; ORS chapter 40 (Oregon Evidence Code); ORS chapter 105

Oregon’s $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages covers wrongful death claims. Since January 1, 2022, an injury claim where the injured person survives has been outside that cap; claims against public bodies have separate limits (ORS 31.710; Senate Bill 193).

Noneconomic damages are losses such as pain, mental suffering, emotional distress, lost companionship, and interference with everyday activities. Economic damages are measurable losses such as medical charges, lost income, and reduced earning capacity (ORS 31.705). The pain and suffering calculator covers that part of compensation.

The Oregon court decisions behind the cap

In Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, Inc., on July 9, 2020, the Oregon Supreme Court refused to apply the $500,000 cap to an injured pedestrian’s award under Article I, section 10 of the Oregon Constitution. The garbage truck accident and jury amounts appear in the case-results table. The legislature later restricted the cap to death claims.

The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the $500,000 wrongful death cap in Estate of James Ritchie v. Helbig on February 11, 2026. Review ended when the Oregon Supreme Court denied the petition on May 21, 2026. In Estate of Grant Raymond Fisher v. Lee on July 1, 2026, the appeals court held that cutting one $20 million award would leave the plaintiff without a substantial remedy. The court reversed and sent that case back, so the result can still change. Fisher involved an impaired driver rear-ending the young man’s own pickup truck, rather than a commercial truck accident.

Punitive damages require more than carelessness

Punitive damages punish conduct proved by clear and convincing evidence to involve malice, or reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm with conscious indifference to others’ health, safety, and welfare. The first complaint cannot request them; a party asks the court later (ORS 31.730 and 31.725).

The injured person’s portion of a punitive award is 30%. The lawyer’s share comes from that portion and cannot exceed 20% of the whole punitive award. The state’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Account receives 60%, and the State Court Facilities and Security Account receives 10% (ORS 31.735).

The cap in ORS 31.710 excludes punitive damages. Public bodies cannot owe punitive damages under ORS 30.269. The Moutal row in the case-results table describes an affirmed punitive award against a trucking company.

An injured driver who was uninsured or impaired

An injured driver who violated Oregon’s insurance requirement or driving-under-the-influence law cannot recover pain and suffering under ORS 31.715. Exceptions cover an uninsured or impaired other driver, intentional injury, reckless driving or felony conduct by the other driver, and the insurance-lapse exception. The insurance-lapse exception requires coverage within 180 days before the accident and no uninsured driving during the year before the lapse (ORS 31.715(5) and (6)).

Sources: ORS chapter 31; Oregon Laws 2021, chapter 478 (Senate Bill 193); Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, Inc., 366 Or 628 (2020); Estate of James Ritchie v. Helbig, 347 Or App 37 (2026); Oregon Supreme Court, petitions for review, May 21, 2026; Estate of Grant Raymond Fisher v. Lee, 351 Or App 33 (2026); ORS chapter 30

You can recover when your fault is 50% or less, with compensation reduced by your fault percentage. At 51% or more, Oregon bars recovery under ORS 31.600.

Your share is compared with the combined fault of everyone the statute includes, including the responsible drivers and companies. The Oregon comparative negligence rule explains that comparison.

Example: fault reduces $500,000 in damages

For example, take $500,000 in damages before your fault is subtracted. The computed amounts show the reduction at each fault percentage.

Sources: ORS chapter 31

An injury claim has a two-year lawsuit deadline in Oregon. The estate’s personal representative brings a wrongful death claim within three years after discovering, or reasonably being expected to discover, the injury causing death, never later than three years after death (ORS 12.110 and 30.020).

The filing deadline is called the statute of limitations. A city garbage truck or a county, state, or transit vehicle also brings a public body notice requirement.

Separate limits for public bodies

The Oregon Judicial Department’s limits for claims arising July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 are $902,700 for one claimant and $1,805,300 for all claimants against a local public body. The Oregon Judicial Department’s state limits for the same period are $2,708,100 for one claimant and $5,416,200 for all claimants.

The Oregon injury deadline guide covers filing periods. A crash in Washington, including across the Columbia River, follows that state’s law.

Sources: ORS chapter 12; ORS chapter 30; ORS chapter 742; Oregon Judicial Department, annual adjustments to Tort Claims Act limits

Of 59,923 general civil cases closed in 2025, the Oregon Judicial Department reports that 81.4% ended within 180 days and 93.0% within 365 days. Those court figures cover all general civil case types, rather than truck cases by themselves. The Oregon Judicial Department’s 2025 trial report lists 139 civil jury trials with an average of 810.67 days from filing to trial.

The accident also starts deadlines for testing, reports, records, benefits, and lawsuits. Each clock serves a different purpose.

Sources: Oregon Judicial Department, 2025 time to disposition report; Oregon Judicial Department, 2025 cases tried, trial metrics; 49 CFR 382.303; Oregon DMV, collision reporting; 49 CFR 396.11; 49 CFR 395.8; 49 CFR 396.3; 49 CFR 390.15; ORS chapter 742; ORS chapter 12; ORS chapter 30

Your settlement must account for fees, case costs, and any required repayments or liens. A lien gives its holder a legal claim to part of your settlement money.

• Lawyer fees and the costs of pursuing the claim.
• PIP and health insurer repayment after full compensation, under the rule for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2020 (ORS 742.544).
• The Oregon Health Plan’s lien; the fees and costs of getting the settlement are excluded (ORS 416.540).
• Hospital and physician liens for treatment (ORS 87.555).
• Repayment to Medicare when it paid bills related to the accident (42 U.S.C. 1395y(b)(2)(B)(ii)).

Use the settlement disbursement statement to see the deductions and the money remaining for you.

Sources: ORS chapter 742; Oregon Laws 2019, chapter 460 (Senate Bill 421); ORS chapter 416; ORS chapter 87; 42 U.S.C. 1395y (Cornell Legal Information Institute)

Each row concerns one case decided on its own facts by a jury or judge, or resolved through the public settlement record identified in the row; none sets the value of another claim. Several accidents date from 1997 to 2006, and the year column includes the accident year when the record supplies it.

Sources: court opinions and briefs, the public settlement ordinance, and the trial or verdict reports linked in each case’s source cell.

File the required collision report, start your PIP claim, and ask the trucking company to save the records. Keep the public body notice and lawsuit deadlines with those tasks.

Sources: Oregon DMV, collision reporting; ORS chapter 742; 49 CFR 395.8; ORS chapter 30; ORS chapter 12

Sources: ORS chapter 825; OAR chapter 740, division 40 (motor carrier insurance); OAR chapter 740, division 100 (federal safety rules adopted); 49 CFR 387.9; ORS chapter 742; Chesterman v. Barmon, 305 Or 439 (1988) (Harvard Caselaw Access Project copy); Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, 608 U.S. 219 (2026), No. 24-1238 (U.S. Supreme Court, preliminary print); ORS chapter 31; ORS chapter 811; 49 CFR 395.8; 49 CFR 396.11; 49 CFR 390.15; ORS chapter 105; Estate of James Ritchie v. Helbig, 347 Or App 37 (2026); Oregon Supreme Court, petitions for review, May 21, 2026; Estate of Grant Raymond Fisher v. Lee, 351 Or App 33 (2026); ORS chapter 12; ORS chapter 30; Oregon Judicial Department, 2025 time to disposition report; Oregon Judicial Department, 2025 cases tried, trial metrics; ORS chapter 656; 26 U.S.C. 104 (Cornell Legal Information Institute); ORS chapter 316

Use the free AI calculator with attorney review to see the national injury range alongside your Oregon accident details. Add the truck’s insurance, your medical bills, and the fault details for a review of your claim.