Few crashes are as devastating as a truck underride accident. When a passenger vehicle slides beneath the rear or side of a tractor-trailer, the truck’s frame strikes the cabin at windshield height, above every safety feature built into the car. Survivors face catastrophic injuries. Families often face the loss of a loved one.
Fieger Law has represented injured Michiganders and their families since 1950. As experienced Michigan truck underride accident lawyers, we investigate what failed: the driver, the trucking company, the trailer, the guard, or all of the above. Then we work to hold all responsible parties accountable.
Contact our truck accident lawyers today for a free case review. You pay nothing unless we get money for you.
What Is a Truck Underride Accident?
An underride collision happens when a smaller vehicle slides under the rear or side of a commercial truck or trailer. The bottom of the trailer meets the windshield, the roof, or the upper cabin of the car. Airbags, crumple zones, and reinforced A-pillars are designed for impacts at bumper height, not chassis height, so they offer almost no protection.
The result is what crash engineers call passenger compartment intrusion. The space the driver and passengers occupy is no longer intact. Injuries are catastrophic, and in many cases, fatal.
There are three subtypes: rear underride, side underride, and front override. Each one builds on a different legal claim. Understanding which type happened is the first step in figuring out who can be held responsible.
If you are reading this because someone you love was killed or seriously hurt, contact Fieger Law. We can explain your options at no cost.
How Rear, Side, and Front Override Underride Claims Differ
Underride cases are not all alike. The type of collision determines what evidence matters, which federal standards apply, and who can be held liable.
Rear Underride Claims
A rear underride occurs when a passenger vehicle strikes the back of a trailer and slides beneath it. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 223 and 224 require most large trailers to have a rear impact guard capable of stopping a passenger vehicle in this kind of collision. When that guard is missing, corroded, improperly installed, or fails to meet the standard, the trailer manufacturer and the trucking company may both be liable alongside the driver.
Side Underride Claims
A side underride happens when a vehicle strikes the side of a trailer, often when a truck is crossing or turning through traffic. There is no current federal mandate for side underride guards on most trailers. That makes these claims turn on different evidence: conspicuity tape, reflectors, lighting, the lawfulness of the truck’s maneuver, and the trucking company’s training and dispatch decisions.
Front Override Claims
A front override is the reverse. The truck rides over a smaller vehicle from behind. Driver negligence is usually central: excessive speed, following too closely, fatigue, distraction, or a failure to brake. The trucking company’s hiring, training, and hours-of-service practices often come into play.
Each path requires different evidence. Speak with a Fieger Law attorney about which one fits your case.
Common Causes of Underride Accidents Involving Tractor-Trailers
Underride crashes rarely come down to a single cause. Multiple failures usually line up: a tired driver, a poorly lit trailer, a missing guard, a sudden stop. Common contributing factors include:
- Missing or Non-Compliant Underride Guards: Federal rear impact guard standards exist, but enforcement is uneven, and damaged guards are not always replaced.
- Poor Conspicuity: Dim, dirty, or broken taillights and reflectors, faded reflective tape, or trailers parked in unlit areas all raise underride risk.
- Trucks Stopped or Disabled on Shoulders: When a tractor-trailer stops on the shoulder of I-75 or I-696 without flares, hazard lights, or reflective triangles, oncoming vehicles can drive straight into the rear of the trailer.
- Sudden Braking, Jackknifing, and Trailer Separation: An empty trailer stops differently than a loaded one. Drivers who do not adjust create rear-end hazards behind them.
- Unsafe U-Turns, Lane Changes, and Merges Across Traffic: Side underrides often happen when a driver assumes oncoming traffic can see and avoid the trailer crossing the road.
- Driver Fatigue and Hours-of-Service Violations: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rules limit how long a commercial driver can operate. Violations are common and provable through electronic logging device data.
- Michigan-Specific Risks: Heavy cross-border freight at the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, winter weather on I-75 and I-94, and ongoing construction zones across Metro Detroit all raise the underride risk.
Identifying every cause is how compensation gets calculated. Contact Fieger Law to start the investigation.
Catastrophic Injuries in Underride Crashes
The impact in an underride collision lands above the car’s crumple zone, so the cabin takes the full force. The injuries reflect that. Survivors of underride crashes typically face long hospital stays, permanent disability, or both.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries: Often severe, with lasting cognitive, motor, and behavioral effects
- Spinal Cord Injuries and Paralysis: Frequently permanent, requiring lifelong care and home modifications
- Severe Head, Neck, and Facial Trauma: Including fractures, disfigurement, and loss of vision or hearing
- Internal Organ Damage and Crushing Injuries: Often life-threatening, often requiring multiple surgeries
- Fatal Injuries: In the most severe underride crashes, families are left to pursue a wrongful death claim instead of an injury claim.
In Metro Detroit, underride survivors are most often transported to Henry Ford Hospital’s Level I trauma center, DMC Detroit Receiving, or Corewell Royal Oak. The medical record built in those first hours and days becomes part of the legal record. Gaps or delays in care can be used by insurers to dispute the severity of the injury later.
Talk to Fieger Law before you talk to the trucking insurer.
How Liability Is Determined in a Michigan Underride Case
Liability in an underride crash is rarely limited to one party. A typical case may involve several defendants:
- The Truck Driver: For negligent operation, fatigue, distraction, or unsafe maneuvers
- The Trucking Company: For negligent hiring, training, supervision, dispatching, or failure to enforce hours-of-service rules
- The Trailer or Guard Manufacturer: For a defective or non-compliant underride guard, or for failing to install side conspicuity equipment
- The Maintenance Provider: For failing to inspect, repair, or replace damaged guards, lights, and reflective tape
- The Cargo Loader or Shipper: When shifting or overloaded freight contributed to the crash
Building the case starts with evidence preservation. We move quickly to secure black box and engine control module (ECM) data, FMCSA hours-of-service logs, dashcam footage, maintenance records, driver qualification files, and guard inspection documentation. Trucking companies have rapid response teams of their own. The longer a family waits, the more evidence is at risk.
Michigan law generally presumes the rear driver is at fault in a rear-end collision. Underride cases often rebut that presumption. When a trailer’s guard failed, when its lights were out, or when it was parked illegally on the shoulder, the responsibility shifts.
Michigan no-fault law also requires that an injured person meet a threshold (death, permanent serious disfigurement, or serious impairment of body function) to bring a third-party tort claim against the at-fault commercial driver and carrier. Underride crashes almost always clear that threshold.
Make sure the evidence is preserved before it disappears. Contact Fieger Law to schedule a consultation.
Wrongful Death Damages in Commercial Underride Cases
Many underride collisions are fatal. When that happens, the legal claim shifts from a personal injury case to a Michigan wrongful death case under the Michigan Wrongful Death Act. The family does not lose the right to hold the trucking company accountable. The claim is brought on behalf of the people the loss affected most.
Recoverable damages in a Michigan wrongful death underride case may include:
- Medical Expenses Incurred Before Death: Emergency care, hospitalization, and any treatment between the crash and the loss
- Funeral and Burial Costs: The financial burden families never planned for
- Loss of Financial Support: Lost wages, benefits, and the income the deceased would have provided over their working life
- Loss of Companionship and Society: The relationship itself, and what spouses, children, parents, and siblings can no longer share
- Conscious Pain and Suffering Before Death: When the deceased was aware of their injuries in the time between the crash and passing
Under Michigan law, the personal representative of the estate files the wrongful death claim. The damages are distributed to surviving family (typically the spouse, children, parents, and siblings) based on the loss each one suffered.
Commercial trucking carriers operating across state lines are required to carry minimum liability coverage of $750,000, and most carry far more. The financial landscape of a commercial underride case is entirely different from that of a typical two-car collision. A family may be facing an insurer with a multimillion-dollar policy and a defense team built to protect it.
Fieger Law has represented families in some of Michigan’s largest catastrophic-loss cases. Reach out for a free, confidential conversation.
Insurance Company Tactics After an Underride Crash
Trucking insurers are not waiting for the family to call. Their rapid response teams are often at the scene within hours, taking photographs, interviewing witnesses, and building a defense before the family has even finished talking to the hospital. Common tactics include:
- Early Lowball Offers: A settlement is offered before the family knows the full extent of the medical bills, the funeral costs, or the lost income.
- Requests for Recorded Statements: Anything a grieving family member says in those first days can be used to dispute liability or injury severity later.
- Social Media Surveillance: Survivors and family members are monitored online for anything that can be twisted out of context.
- Disputing the Cause: Insurers may argue the smaller vehicle was speeding, the driver was distracted, or the death was caused by something other than the crash.
- Slow-Walking the Investigation: Delay favors the carrier. Families under financial pressure may accept less just to end the wait.
When you hire Fieger Law, you do not talk to the trucking insurer. We do. Our team stands between you and the carrier so you can focus on healing or grieving.
Do not give a recorded statement before you talk to us first.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Is Liability Determined in a Rear Underride Collision?
Liability in a rear underride collision turns on whether the trailer’s rear impact guard met federal standards and whether the truck driver or trucking company contributed to the crash. Investigators look at guard compliance under FMVSS 223 and 224, maintenance records, lighting and reflector condition, and driver behavior leading up to the impact. In many cases, the trailer manufacturer, the trucking company, and the driver are all named.
What Is the Difference Between a Rear Underride and a Side Underride Claim?
A rear underride claim usually centers on whether the trailer’s federally required rear impact guard performed as it should. A side underride claim has no equivalent federal guard standard, so it usually focuses on conspicuity (lighting, reflective tape, and whether the trucking company knew the trailer was hard to see) and on the lawfulness of whatever maneuver brought the truck across traffic. Different evidence, different defendants, different strategy.
What Damages Can a Family Pursue in a Fatal Underride Case?
A Michigan family pursuing a wrongful death claim after a fatal underride crash may recover medical expenses incurred before death, funeral and burial costs, loss of financial support, loss of companionship and society, and the deceased’s conscious pain and suffering before death. The personal representative of the estate brings the claim on behalf of the surviving spouse, children, parents, and siblings.
What Legal Options Do Families Have After a Loved One Dies in an Underride Crash?
Families have the right to bring a wrongful death claim against the truck driver, the trucking company, the trailer or guard manufacturer, and any other party whose negligence contributed to the crash. The claim is filed by the personal representative of the estate. An experienced underride accident attorney can identify every potential defendant and the insurance coverage available, then build the case on the family’s behalf.
What Are the Common Causes of Underride Accidents Involving Tractor-Trailers?
The most common causes are missing or non-compliant rear underride guards, poor trailer conspicuity (broken lights, faded reflective tape), trucks stopped on shoulders without proper warning devices, sudden braking by the truck driver, unsafe U-turns and lane changes, and driver fatigue or hours-of-service violations. Michigan weather and heavy commercial cross-border traffic add risk on top of these baseline causes.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire Fieger Law for an Underride Case?
Nothing up front. Fieger Law handles underride and other catastrophic injury cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay no fees, costs, or expenses unless we get money for you. The initial case review is free.
Talk to a Michigan Underride Accident Lawyer Today
Underride crashes change lives in a few seconds. Whether you are recovering in a hospital bed, learning to live with a permanent injury, or planning a funeral, you should not be doing this alone, and you should not be doing it against a trucking insurer.
Fieger Law has represented Michiganders in catastrophic vehicle, medical, and civil rights cases since 1950. We can investigate the crash, preserve the evidence, identify every responsible party, and stand between your family and the trucking company while you focus on what matters.
Contact our truck accident lawyers anytime, day or night, or fill out our online form for a free case review. You pay us nothing unless we get money for you.
