Where truck accidents happen in Pomona
Pomona is the largest city in the San Gabriel Valley and the place where the 10, the 57, the 60 and the 71 come together. Freight from Ontario, Fontana and Chino headed to the ports takes the 60 or the 10 through the city; freight headed to Orange County drops down the 57; and the trucks that serve Pomona’s own industrial east side use Mission, Holt, Reservoir and Garey to get there. The city’s truck-route ordinance names those streets, and the crashes follow them.
The 10/57/71 interchange. The transition roads between the San Bernardino, Orange and Chino Valley freeways are tight, banked and always full. On March 27, 2025, two big rigs collided on the connector from the westbound 10 to the northbound 57 around 8:40 in the morning; one person died at the scene and the CHP closed the road for more than two hours. Three weeks earlier, a FedEx semi crashed on the westbound 10 just east of the 57 and spilled oil across every westbound lane before dawn. Caltrans counts about 17,400 trucks a day through this interchange.
The 10 at Fairplex, White, Garey, Towne and Indian Hill. Five interchanges in five miles, each with short ramps into stop-and-go traffic. The Garey and Towne ramps serve downtown and the hospital, Fairplex Drive and White serve the fairgrounds, and Indian Hill is the last exit before the county line, where the truck count is the highest on the 10 anywhere in the east valley, about 18,000 a day. In August 2026, a four-vehicle crash in the fast lanes of the westbound 10 just west of Towne trapped a driver in her sedan. Rear-end crashes into the backup and trucks changing lanes late for an exit are the pattern.
The 60 through the south side, at Phillips Ranch, the 71 and Garey. The Pomona Freeway carries the most trucks of any road in the region, more than 26,000 a day at the 71, and more than 12 percent of the traffic is a truck. On September 20, 2026, two sedans and a big rig collided on the eastbound 60 near the transition to the southbound 71 before dawn, and one man was hospitalized. Four days later, a multi-vehicle crash with a big rig on the eastbound 60 at Garey Avenue left one vehicle overturned across the lanes. The westbound backup toward the 57 and Diamond Bar is where cars meet the back of a trailer.
Mission Boulevard and the industrial east side. Pomona’s warehouses and manufacturing plants sit on the east side along Mission, East Ninth Street and Reservoir Street, next to the Union Pacific tracks, and the city’s ordinance routes trucks to them on Mission from Reservoir east and on Reservoir from the 60 north. Mission continues into Montclair and Ontario. It is wide, fast and lined with driveways, and left turns across it at Reservoir, Towne and the 71 ramps are where cars and loaded tractor-trailers meet. Trucks backing across Mission into a dock are the other version.
Garey Avenue and Holt Avenue through downtown. Garey is the city’s spine from the 10 past Pomona Valley Hospital, the Fox Theater and the courthouse to the 60. Holt is the east-west commercial strip and a designated truck route from Indian Hill east. Both carry delivery trucks, box trucks, buses and cutting-through semis past the Arts Colony, the Metrolink station and the Civic Center, where people are on foot. A delivery truck stopped in the right lane on Garey and a rig running a stale yellow at Holt are the downtown crashes.
Arrow Highway, Towne Avenue and the Fairplex. Arrow Highway is a truck route across the whole north side of the city, along the rail line past the Fairplex, Brackett Field and the industrial buildings between Garey and the La Verne line. Towne Avenue is the designated route from the 10 north to Foothill. The 543-acre Fairplex brings show trucks, carnival haulers and livestock trailers in and out on White, McKinley and Fairplex Drive for the county fair in May, the drag races and trade shows all year, usually at night. Wide turns and trucks backing across the road are the hazards on this side.
The Pomona City Code, most recently amended by Ordinance 4255 in 2019, designates the truck routes: every state highway, Arrow Highway across the city, Holt from Indian Hill east, Indian Hill from Holt north to the 10, Mission from Reservoir east, Reservoir from the south city limit to Mission, Towne from the 10 north to Foothill, and Valley from the west city limit to the 71. A tractor-trailer on a neighborhood street off that list to skip a signal is breaking a safety rule, and in California a safety-rule violation that causes a crash is negligence per se.
The 2025 and 2026 crash list for Pomona’s freeways is long. On March 27, 2025, two big rigs collided on the westbound 10 to northbound 57 connector and one person died at the scene. On March 3, 2025, a FedEx semi crashed on the westbound 10 east of the 57 and oil across the lanes shut the freeway for the morning commute. On September 20, 2026, a big rig and two sedans collided on the eastbound 60 at the 71 transition, and on September 24 a crash with a big rig on the eastbound 60 at Garey overturned a vehicle in the lanes. The CHP handled all of them.
Why a truck case is not a big car accident case
The defendant is a company with an insurer and a lawyer, the rules it broke are federal, and the proof of what happened is stored on its truck. Each of those changes how the case has to be built.
Federal rules set the standard of care
The rigs on the 10 and the 60 through Pomona are mostly interstate carriers, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations govern them. A driver gets eleven hours of driving inside a fourteen-hour day with a thirty-minute break under Part 395, must be qualified under Part 391 and tested under Part 382, and the truck has to be inspected and maintained under Part 396. When a violation caused the crash on the 57 transition or on Mission Boulevard, California treats it as negligence per se, and the carrier has to explain the violation rather than you having to prove what a careful driver would have done.
The coverage is measured in millions
A car in California can be insured for $30,000 per person, which does not cover the first day in the trauma unit at Pomona Valley. A truck over 10,001 pounds hauling general freight in interstate commerce must carry at least $750,000 under 49 CFR 387.9, and $5 million for certain hazardous loads. National carriers and parcel fleets carry far more. The money is there to pay for a serious injury, and the adjuster knows it, which is why the fight is over fault and not over the bills.
More than one company is on the hook
The driver works for a carrier that may lease its tractor from one company and pull a trailer owned by another. A broker matched the load, a warehouse in Ontario or on Pomona’s east side loaded and sealed it, and an outside shop signed off on the brakes. Each of them can share fault and each has its own policy. In a Pomona case, the company on the side of the trailer is often not the company that employs the driver, and we sort that out before anyone talks to an adjuster.
The evidence is on a clock
Federal rules only require a carrier to keep electronic driver logs for six months. The engine’s data can be overwritten when the truck goes back to work, and dash-cam video is deleted on a rolling schedule. The carrier’s insurer will have an investigator at the 57 interchange the same day. We send a written preservation demand to the carrier, the broker and the insurer within days, so that if evidence goes missing afterward, the jury hears why.
The evidence we lock down in the first 72 hours
The trucking company’s insurer usually has an adjuster and an accident reconstructionist on a serious crash the same day. This is what we go after to level that field.
- Electronic logging device data. The driver’s hours for the trip and the seven days before it. Fatigue is the most common cause nobody sees at the scene, and the log either proves it or was edited.
- Engine control module download. Speed, throttle, brake application and following distance in the seconds before impact. On a rear-end crash into the westbound 60 backup at the 57, it answers whether the truck could have stopped.
- Dash-cam and cab-facing video. Most fleets run cameras both ways. Video of a driver on a phone coming into the 10-to-57 connector changes a case in a single frame.
- Driver qualification file. License history, medical card, prior crashes and citations, training records, and the background check the carrier was required to run before it hired this driver.
- Post-crash drug and alcohol tests. Federal rules require testing after a crash with a death, an injury treated away from the scene, or a tow. We confirm the test was done on time and get the result.
- Maintenance, inspection and cargo records. Brake and tire records, the pre-trip inspection report, the bill of lading and the weight ticket. When a trailer overturns on the 60 at Garey, how the load was secured is the first question.
Who can be held responsible for a Pomona truck crash
- The truck driver
- For speeding on a transition road, tailgating, an unsafe lane change, running a signal on Garey or Mission, leaving the designated truck route, distraction, fatigue or impairment. California also limits any vehicle with three or more axles or a trailer to 55 miles an hour and the right-hand lanes under Vehicle Code 22406.
- The motor carrier
- The company whose USDOT number is on the door answers for its driver’s negligence and for its own: hiring a driver with a bad record, dispatching him past the hours limit, or skipping maintenance to keep the truck on the road. We check the carrier’s federal safety record before the first call with its adjuster.
- The freight broker and the shipper
- A broker that hands loads to carriers with poor safety scores can be liable for negligent selection. A shipper or distribution center that loaded and sealed the trailer can be liable when a shifting or overweight load caused the crash.
- Tractor and trailer owners, lessors and maintenance shops
- The tractor and the trailer often have different owners, and a leasing company or a contract shop that signed off on worn brakes or a bad tire becomes a defendant with its own insurance.
- Manufacturers
- Brake failures, tire blowouts and trailers without proper rear underride guards support product liability claims against the companies that built or sold them.
- Caltrans, the City of Pomona or a contractor
- When a lane closure, a missing sign, a bad signal or a construction zone on the 10, the 60 or a city street contributed to the crash, a government claim must be filed within six months under Government Code 911.2. We calendar that deadline the day we open the file.
After a truck crash in Pomona: who to call and where to go
What a Pomona truck accident claim can recover
The companies responsible for the truck owe the full cost of what the crash did to you, not the number their adjuster offers in the first week. In a truck case that usually includes:
- Emergency and hospital care the ambulance, the trauma unit at Pomona Valley, surgery, imaging and the months of physical therapy that follow.
- Future medical care a life-care plan when a brain injury, spinal cord injury or amputation will need treatment for years, often at Casa Colina.
- Lost wages and lost earning capacity the paychecks you missed and the job you cannot go back to.
- Pain, suffering and the loss of your normal life which California does not cap in a trucking case.
- Your car and your property the vehicle, the rental, and what was inside it.
- Wrongful death damages for a spouse, children or parents under Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60, including funeral costs and the loss of the person’s support, guidance and companionship.
Under California’s pure comparative negligence rule, a share of fault reduces the recovery by that share; it does not bar the claim. Immigration status has no bearing on any of it.
Abogado de accidentes de camión en Pomona
Si un tráiler, un camión de carga o una camioneta de reparto lo lesionó en Pomona, en el cruce de la 10, la 57 y la 71, en la autopista 60, en Garey, Holt, Mission o Arrow Highway, la compañía de transporte y su aseguradora ya están trabajando para pagarle lo menos posible. Por Pomona pasan más camiones que por cualquier otra ciudad del valle. Usted tiene derecho a que cubran la sala de emergencias, el tratamiento, los salarios perdidos, el carro y el daño a su vida. El abogado Francisco Morales atiende su caso personalmente en español, sin intermediarios, y nuestra oficina está a diez minutos por Garey y Arrow Highway. La consulta es gratis y no paga honorarios si no recuperamos dinero para usted. Su estatus migratorio no cambia sus derechos. No dé una declaración grabada a la aseguradora del camión. Llámenos primero.
A local attorney who handles the case himself
Search for a Pomona truck accident attorney and most of the results are downtown Los Angeles firms and national lead networks with a page for every city in California and no one who has driven Mission Boulevard. Morales Law Firm is on Bonita Avenue in San Dimas, six miles from Pomona City Hall, ten minutes on Arrow Highway and Garey. Francisco Morales grew up in West Covina, graduated from UCLA and Loyola Law School, and worked as a certified automotive service consultant before he became a lawyer, which is useful when the argument is about brakes, following distance and what a truck’s data actually shows. He is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, he answers his own phone, and he does not hand truck cases to a case manager. More about Francisco.
We handle truck and big rig crashes throughout the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire, along with car accidents in Pomona, 57/60 interchange collisions, brain injury cases, motorcycle crashes, pedestrian injuries, wrongful death and uninsured motorist claims, and we come to you in Pomona when that is easier.
Pomona truck accident questions
Who investigates a truck accident in Pomona?
A crash on the 10, the 57, the 60 or the 71, including the transition roads between them, belongs to the California Highway Patrol’s Baldwin Park Area office on Francisquito Avenue. A crash on Garey, Holt, Mission, Towne, Arrow Highway or any other city street goes to the Pomona Police Department at 490 W. Mission Blvd., which also enforces the city’s truck-route ordinance. We get the report either way, and on a serious freeway crash we find out whether the CHP’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team responded, because its file has measurements the standard report does not.
Where would a Pomona truck accident lawsuit be filed?
In Pomona. The Pomona Courthouse South at 400 Civic Center Plaza is the East District courthouse for the Los Angeles Superior Court, and serious injury cases from Pomona, La Verne, San Dimas, Claremont and the rest of the east valley are filed there as unlimited civil cases. Small claims for Pomona addresses go to the West Covina Courthouse. If the carrier is based out of state, it may move the case to federal court in downtown Los Angeles, and we plan for that from the start.
How much does a Pomona truck accident lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, a percentage of the recovery that is paid only when the case resolves. If there is no recovery there is no attorney’s fee. We advance the cost of accident reconstruction, engineers, medical witnesses, records and depositions while the case is open, and the first consultation is free. The trucking company’s insurer handles truck claims every day and you are handling one once, so make the call before you give a recorded statement.
How far is your office from Pomona?
About six miles, ten minutes. From downtown take Garey north to Arrow Highway, west on Arrow to San Dimas Avenue, and north to Bonita. From the south side take the 57 north to the Bonita Avenue exit. We are at 151 W. Bonita Ave. in downtown San Dimas with free parking. Francisco also meets Pomona clients at home, at Pomona Valley Hospital or at Casa Colina when driving is not an option.
¿Hablan español?
Sí. El abogado Francisco Morales es completamente bilingüe y maneja su caso de accidente de camión en español de principio a fin: la consulta, las negociaciones con la aseguradora del camión, los documentos y el acuerdo final. Usted habla directamente con el abogado, no con un asistente.
How long do I have to file a claim after a truck crash in Pomona?
Two years from the crash to file a lawsuit for injuries or wrongful death under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. If Caltrans, the City of Pomona or another public entity contributed to the crash, for example through a lane closure on the 10 or a bad signal on Mission, a government claim is due within six months under Government Code 911.2. The useful deadline is shorter than either, because the carrier only has to keep the driver’s logs for six months and the truck’s data can be gone in days.
What makes a truck crash different from a car crash?
The weight, the rules, the money and the evidence. An 80,000-pound rig does damage a car cannot, so the injuries are worse. The company that runs the truck must follow federal hours, drug testing, hiring and maintenance rules, and breaking one is negligence per se. It carries at least $750,000 in coverage and usually far more. And it holds the log, the engine data and the video that show what happened, and sends investigators to the scene the same day. The case is won by getting that evidence early.
The crash was on a transition road at the 10/57/71 interchange. Does that change the case?
It changes the evidence. Transition roads have posted advisory speeds for the curve, and a loaded rig that rolls or jackknifes on the connector was almost always going too fast for it. The engine control module records speed through the curve, the CHP measures the marks, and Caltrans keeps the design and signage records for the ramp. When a big rig hit another big rig on the 10-to-57 connector in March 2025, the questions were speed, following distance and whether either driver was inside his hours. Those are the questions in every interchange case.
The truck driver says I stopped short or cut him off. What now?
That is the standard defense, and the truck’s own equipment usually answers it. The forward camera, the engine control module and the electronic log show the truck’s speed, braking and following distance in the seconds before impact. If the rig was over the 55 mile-an-hour truck limit on the 60 or was in a lane trucks are not allowed to use, the picture changes. California follows pure comparative negligence, so even if you carry part of the fault, your recovery is reduced by that share rather than eliminated.
It was a delivery van, a box truck or a truck from the Fairplex, not a semi. Is that still a truck case?
Yes. Box trucks, parcel vans, show trucks, carnival haulers and the rigs serving Pomona’s east-side warehouses are commercial vehicles driven for a company, and any truck over 10,001 pounds in interstate commerce is under the same federal rules as a semi. The harder question is which company answers for the driver, because a delivery contractor, a leasing company, a promoter and the brand on the side of the truck are often different businesses. We identify all of them and their insurers on day one.
Can I get medical treatment if I do not have health insurance?
Yes. Go to Pomona Valley Hospital on Garey Avenue right after the crash; it is the trauma center for the whole east valley and it is inside the city. After that we arrange treatment with orthopedists, physical therapists, chiropractors and imaging centers in Pomona and the surrounding cities who treat on a lien and are paid from the settlement, and Casa Colina on Bonita Avenue for rehabilitation after a serious injury. Immigration status does not affect your right to treatment or to a recovery.