A commercial truck that is unsafe to drive can cause a crash long before anyone reviews a log. Minnesota requires periodic inspections of commercial vehicles and ties them to a decal. A crash victim who understands the rule can ask for the right records.
What the Statute Requires
Minnesota Statutes section 169.781 makes it unlawful to operate or permit the operation of a covered commercial motor vehicle that does not meet the inspection requirement. A covered vehicle must display a valid safety inspection decal issued by a certified inspector. The alternative is proof of federal interstate inspection compliance, together with a certificate issued under the statute.
The section defines covered vehicles by weight, combination weight, bus status, or hazardous materials placarding. Certain school buses and transit buses are excluded. Identifying which category a truck falls into is the first step in any records request.
How Long a Decal Stays Valid
The decal is valid for 12 months after the month specified on it, which makes the cycle yearly. A lapsed decal can be checked against the date of the crash. Inspections follow the federal standards in 49 C.F.R. section 396.17 and its appendix, and a decal is issued only if every inspected component complies with federal motor carrier safety regulations.
Who Performs the Inspection
Employees of the Department of Public Safety or the Department of Transportation may inspect. So may people certified by the commissioner, which can include owners or their employees, licensed dealers, and commercial repair businesses. Private inspector certification lasts two years.
The inspector gives the owner a report, and both keep copies for 14 months. Those reports can show what was checked on the truck before a crash. Fourteen months is a short window, so a request for them should go out early.
Records a Claim Should Seek
A truck can pass an inspection and still develop a problem later. Records on common maintenance failures help a claim separate a long-standing defect from a sudden one. A truck crash claim can seek these inspection-related items:
- The inspection decal and its date
- The inspection report and the inspector’s certification
- Maintenance and repair records
- Records of brake, tire, and lighting work
- The crash report and photographs of the vehicle
Penalties and Exemptions
A violation of the section is a misdemeanor, and falsely making or altering a decal with intent to defraud is a gross misdemeanor. The section doesn’t apply to certain passenger carriers inspected within the previous 12 months or to covered farm vehicles not carrying placardable hazardous materials. Those exemptions explain why the first step in a claim is identifying the vehicle type, since the answer decides which records exist.
Evidence at a Woodbury Crash Scene
The scene shows what the records can’t. Photographs of the truck, its tires, and its brakes should be taken as soon as possible. Our Woodbury truck accident lawyer team works from the scene evidence and the inspection records together.
Evidence can disappear quickly after a crash. Woodbury truck crash evidence is worth preserving before the vehicle is repaired or moved. Repairs erase the very parts a claim needs to examine.
Related Truck Claims
Brake problems are one reason a truck can fail to stop. Reports on brake failure can be compared with the inspection record, including the date of the last brake work. The gap between the two can be revealing.
Tires are inspected too. Questions about tire maintenance liability can be checked against the same repair records. A worn tire leaves a paper trail of its own in the repair file, and the dates on that file can be compared with the date of the crash.
Commercial carriers operate across the state. Our Minnesota commercial truck accident lawyer team handles claims against carriers wherever the crash occurred. The carrier’s records follow the truck, and they can be requested no matter where the crash happened.
Working With Our Firm
Christopher A. Johnston focuses on truck accident litigation, including cases involving semi-trucks and tanker trucks, and he has been named a Super Lawyer five times. Johnston | Martineau PLLP represents injured people in truck crash cases. The inspection rule creates a paper trail, and that trail can be requested after a crash. People hurt in a truck crash in Woodbury can reach out to us, and we’ll go through the inspection records and the scene evidence together.
