Maryland Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog
A federal rule that took effect on October 5, 2026, more than doubles the time a truck driver hauling emergency relief can operate outside the national hours-of-service limits. It applies on Maryland’s interstates as it does everywhere else. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that automatic relief following a regional emergency declaration now lasts up to 30 days instead of 14. The declaration can come from a governor, a governor’s authorized representative, or the agency itself.
Truck driver fatigue remains a basis for a negligence claim in Maryland under the new rule. The change suspends two hours-of-service regulations for relief drivers and leaves in place the separate federal rule against driving while fatigued.
Relief loads move on the same interstates as everything else, including I-95, I-81, and I-70. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers represents people hurt in Maryland trucking accident claims on those corridors. When a carrier says its driver was exempt, dispatch and shipping records show whether that is true.
What the Emergency Relief Rule Suspends
Under 49 C.F.R. § 390.23, a truck driver providing direct assistance during a regional emergency is exempt from the federal hours-of-service limits. The exemption lasts for the length of the emergency or 30 days from the initial declaration, whichever is less. It ends sooner if the truck carries cargo that is not destined for the relief effort.
The limits it lifts are in §§ 395.3 and 395.5. Section 395.3 ordinarily holds a property-carrying driver to 11 hours of driving inside a 14-hour window, which must follow 10 consecutive hours off duty. It also bars driving after 60 on-duty hours in seven days or 70 in eight.
Direct assistance, as the regulations define it, is transportation that supplements state and local efforts to save lives or property. It covers restoring essential services such as electricity and medical care, and delivering essential supplies such as food and fuel. Routine commercial deliveries made after the initial threat has passed are excluded, as is long-term rebuilding work.
Why Truck Driver Fatigue Is Still Negligence During an Emergency
For a regional declaration, the relief reaches only those two hours sections. 49 C.F.R. § 392.3 is a separate rule and stays in force. It bars a driver from operating a commercial vehicle while the driver’s ability or alertness is so impaired through fatigue that driving is unsafe. A carrier may not require or permit it either. Broader relief that suspends all of Parts 390 through 399 is reserved for emergencies declared by the President and for residential heating fuel shortages.
The regulation also protects the driver once the delivery is made. After direct assistance ends, a driver who tells the carrier that he or she needs immediate rest must be given at least 10 consecutive hours off duty before being required to return to the terminal. Assistance also ends when the carrier sends the truck elsewhere to begin regular operations.
The regulation says nothing about civil liability. A driver too tired to operate a tractor-trailer safely can still be found negligent in a Maryland court, whether or not a federal hours limit applied to the trip.
What to Preserve After a Crash with a Relief Truck
If a truck hit you during or shortly after a declared emergency, whether its load qualified for the exemption is a question documents answer. The declaration fixes the dates. Bills of lading and dispatch records show what the truck was carrying and where it was headed. The driver’s logs, phone records, and the truck’s electronic data show how long the driver had been working.
Maryland’s contributory negligence rule applies to these crashes as it does to any other, so the carrier’s insurer will look for something the injured driver did wrong. The limitations period for a personal injury claim is three years under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101. A family bringing a wrongful death claim has three years from the death under CJP § 3-904(g). Carriers do not keep logs and electronic records indefinitely, so a preservation demand should go out in the first days.
We represent people injured in truck crashes throughout Maryland, and we do not accept a carrier’s account of its own compliance without seeing the records. Our attorneys send preservation demands for driver logs, dispatch communications, and onboard data in the first days after a crash. We work with qualified reconstruction and trucking-safety witnesses to read them. Lebowitz & Mzhen has recovered more than $90 million for injured clients, including a $650,000 truck collision recovery. We take these cases on contingency, so a family pays no fee unless we recover for them.
After a Crash with a Truck Operating Under an Emergency Declaration
Whether an exemption applied on the day of a crash depends on dates and shipping records that the carrier holds. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers represents people injured in truck crashes across Maryland, including on I-95, I-81, and I-70. If you would like us to look at your claim, call (800) 654-1949 or contact us online. The consultation is free, and you owe nothing unless we recover.