"Not Responsible for Broken Windshields
Story by: DU Law Professor Jan Laitos
April 1, 2001
Is a truck legally liable when debris from it flies into and cracks your car windshield? Is the trucking company excused from liability when it installs a sign on the back of the truck saying it is not responsible for broken windshields if the car is following too closely?
It is common throughout the 9News area to see gravel and rock and dump trucks on our highways that are carrying substances that can fall off the moving truck, and break a windshield of a car that is behind it. Often these trucks have signs on the back of the vehicle that seem to say that if the car is following too closely, the truck is not responsible for any damage that might be caused. Do these signs in fact, and as a matter of law, excuse the truck from liability if a windshield is cracked from material that flies off the truck?
One answer to this question is found in state law. As a matter of statutory law, vehicles which are carrying material shall not have that material fly off the vehicle so that it hits and damages other cars. The State Patrol will enforce this law, and cite trucks that either cause accidents or property damage as a result of their loads falling off the vehicle and hitting other motor vehicles. There is no exception in this law for trucks that put warning signs on the truck.
Another answer to the question lies in "common law," which is judge-made law. As a general rule, a person is not excused from liability merely by putting a sign up warning others that the person with the sign is excused from liability. The @ISSUE story makes this point.
However, if there is a sign on a truck that is a warning to a motorist to drive at least 200 feet behind the truck, and if a vehicle is driving really close to the truck (within 200 feet) when debris from the truck hits the windshield, the fact that the vehicle with the cracked windshield is driving very close, despite the warning, could be used in court to mitigate the liability damages for the truck owner. After all, the truck did try to warn, and if the motorist ignored the warning, that fact would probably not be ignored by a court.
State law also provides that certain loads be covered, depending upon how large in diameter the load is that is being carried by the truck. Failure to cover these loads will also be relevant if part of the load is blown off of a truck, and in turn hits the windshield of a following car.
The best piece of non-legal advice that can be provided is simply this:
Cars should stay back from trucks, and don't follow them too closely; and trucks should cover their loads, and not assume signs on the back of the truck excuse them from liability.