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Upland is the last stop before the Ontario airport and the warehouse belt. The 10 runs along its south edge with close to fifteen thousand trucks a day, the 210 cuts across the north side, and Euclid Avenue, Mountain Avenue and Foothill Boulevard carry the trucks that get off both. When a semi, a dump truck or a delivery van hurts you here, the trucking company’s adjuster is already working the file. An Upland truck accident lawyer who is twenty minutes away and picks up his own phone changes that. Francisco Morales handles the case himself, in English or Spanish, and there is no fee unless we win.
Talk to the attorney, not a screener. English or Spanish, 24 hours a day. No fee unless we win.
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Freight moving between the Inland Empire warehouses, the Ontario airport and Los Angeles has two ways west: the 10 along Upland’s southern boundary and the 210 across its northern third. Between them, Euclid Avenue is a state highway, Foothill Boulevard is old Route 66, and Mountain Avenue links the two freeways through the middle of town. Upland is a residential city, but the trucks that serve everything around it drive through it.
| Where | What happens there |
|---|---|
| The 10 at Monte Vista, Central, Mountain and Euclid | The San Bernardino Freeway is the county line’s busiest truck road and the south edge of Upland. Caltrans counts about 14,600 trucks a day at the Euclid Avenue junction and nearly as many at Central Avenue, close to seven percent of all traffic, with heavier concentrations toward the 15. The Mountain and Euclid ramps drop trucks onto short streets lined with shopping centers and apartments, and the westbound side stacks up behind the Montclair Place traffic every evening. Rear-end crashes into slowed traffic and trucks changing lanes late for an exit are the pattern here. |
| The 210 through north Upland | The Foothill Freeway runs across the north side of the city between Claremont and Rancho Cucamonga, with ramps at Mountain Avenue, Euclid and San Antonio, and Campus Avenue. Caltrans counted about 9,300 trucks a day at the Baseline Road station on the Claremont line. On January 13, 2026, a car and a box-style construction truck collided on the eastbound 210 near Mountain Avenue at the start of the evening rush; one person died and another was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital. Construction and materials trucks bound for the foothill subdivisions share these lanes with commuters. |
| Euclid Avenue, Highway 83, and the Madonna of the Trail | Euclid is a state highway from the 10 north to the 210 and beyond, and the city’s signature street, with its planted median and the Madonna of the Trail statue at Foothill. It is also a designated unrestricted truck route from Foothill south to the freeway, and the road that ties Upland to Chino’s dairy and warehouse belt, where Caltrans measures thirteen to nineteen percent of Euclid’s traffic as trucks. Left turns across the median openings, and trucks running the signals at Arrow Route and 8th Street to stay in gear, produce the broadside crashes on this street. |
| Foothill Boulevard, Route 66, end to end | Foothill is an unrestricted truck route across the entire city on Upland’s map, from the Claremont line past Cable Airport to the Rancho Cucamonga line. It is six lanes of car dealers, strip centers, restaurants and the historic downtown blocks around 2nd Avenue. Trucks moving between the 210 and the 10 use it as the crosstown connector, and delivery trucks serve every block of it. Driveway pull-outs, wide right turns onto Mountain and Euclid, and rear-end crashes at the long signals are the recurring hazards. |
| Arrow Route, Benson, Campus and the rail line | The Metrolink and freight line runs east-west through the south side of Upland, and the industrial land along it, around Arrow Route, 8th and 9th Streets, Benson Avenue and Campus Avenue, is where the city’s own trucks come from: contractors’ yards, wholesalers, tow yards and small warehouses. Benson and Campus are unrestricted truck routes on the city map; most of the streets between them are limited to five tons. A tractor-trailer on a five-ton residential street between Arrow and the freeway is off the route it was supposed to be on. |
| The Ontario airport and the warehouse belt next door | Ontario International Airport moved 835,129 tons of air cargo in 2025, and the Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana distribution centers sit east and south of Upland. Their trucks reach the 10 and the 210 through Upland’s ramps. On October 21, 2025, four big rigs, two pickups and two other vehicles collided on the westbound 10 at the 15 in Ontario; three people in the smaller vehicles died and the truck driver who started it was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs. On January 15, 2026, a semi hauling an excavator struck the 15 overpass on the same stretch and knocked a steel beam onto a car, killing its driver. |
The city’s General Plan designates every street in three tiers: unrestricted truck access on Foothill, Baseline, Benson, Mountain, Euclid and Campus, 18-ton limits on a few connectors, and 5-ton limits on everything else, including Arrow Route and the residential grid. A loaded semi on a five-ton street to skip a signal is breaking a posted rule, and in California a safety-rule violation that causes a crash is negligence per se.
Two recent crashes on Upland’s freeways show what these cases involve. On January 13, 2026, around 5:55 p.m., a car and a construction box truck collided on the eastbound 210 near Mountain Avenue; one person was killed, a second was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital, and several eastbound lanes were closed into the evening. On October 21, 2025, a semi that could not stop in time on the westbound 10 at the 15 in Ontario set off a chain reaction involving four big rigs, closed every westbound lane and killed three people, all of them in passenger vehicles.
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.
Nearly every semi on the 10 through Upland is in interstate commerce, so the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations apply. The driver gets eleven hours of driving in a fourteen-hour day with a thirty-minute break under 49 CFR Part 395, must be qualified under Part 391 and tested under Part 382, and the rig must be inspected and maintained under Part 396. When breaking one of those rules caused the crash on Euclid or the 210, California treats it as negligence per se. The carrier has to explain the violation instead of you having to prove what a careful driver would have done.
A California driver can carry $30,000 per person in liability coverage, which does not pay for the first night at Arrowhead or Loma Linda. A truck over 10,001 pounds hauling general freight across state lines must carry at least $750,000 under 49 CFR 387.9, and $5 million for certain hazardous loads. Most carriers stack excess policies above that. The money to pay for a serious injury exists, and the insurer knows it, which is why the fight is over fault rather than the size of the bills.
A driver leaving a Rancho Cucamonga distribution center may work for a carrier that leases its tractor from one company and pulls a trailer owned by another. A broker in Ontario matched the load, a shipper sealed it, and a contract shop signed off on the brakes. Each can share fault, and each has its own insurance. On an airport freight run the name on the door is often not the company that employs the driver, and we sort that out in the first week rather than after the deadline.
Federal rules require a carrier to keep electronic driver logs for only six months. The engine’s data is overwritten when the truck goes back into service, and camera video is deleted on a rolling schedule. The carrier’s insurer will have an investigator on the 10 or the 210 the same day. We send a written preservation demand to the carrier, the broker and the insurer within days, so that if evidence disappears afterward, a San Bernardino County jury hears why.
The trucking company’s insurer usually has an adjuster and an accident reconstructionist at a serious crash the same day. This is what we go after to level that field.
The driver’s hours for the trip and the seven days before it. A driver who left a Fontana yard at the end of a fourteen-hour day is the most common hidden cause, and the log either shows it or was edited.
Speed, throttle, brake application and following distance in the seconds before impact. On a rear-end crash in the westbound 10 backup at Mountain Avenue, it settles whether the truck could have stopped.
Most fleets run cameras both ways. Video of a driver on a phone coming down Euclid Avenue changes a case in a single frame.
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.
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.
Brake and tire records, the pre-trip inspection report, the bill of lading and the weight ticket. For a construction truck bound for the foothill subdivisions, the scale ticket alone can prove the load was over the limit.
For speeding, tailgating, an unsafe lane change, running a signal on Foothill or Euclid, 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, which matters on the long grades of the 210.
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 deferring maintenance to keep the truck earning. We pull the carrier’s federal safety record before the first call with its adjuster.
A broker that hands loads to carriers with poor safety scores can be liable for negligent selection. A distribution center or air cargo handler that loaded and sealed the trailer can be liable when a shifting or overweight load caused the crash.
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.
Brake failures, tire blowouts and trailers without proper rear underride guards support product liability claims against the companies that built or sold them.
When a lane closure, a missing sign, a bad signal or a construction zone on the 10, the 210 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.
The companies responsible for the truck owe the full cost of what the crash did to you, not the figure their adjuster offers in the first week. In a truck case that usually includes:
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.
Si un tráiler, un camión de carga o una camioneta de reparto lo lesionó en Upland, en la autopista 10, en la 210, en Euclid Avenue, Foothill Boulevard o Mountain Avenue, la compañía de transporte y su aseguradora ya están trabajando para pagarle lo menos posible. 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 va a verlo a su casa o al hospital si no puede manejar. 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.
Search for an Upland truck accident attorney and most of what comes up is a Riverside or downtown Los Angeles office running the same page for every city in the Inland Empire. Morales Law Firm is on Bonita Avenue in San Dimas, twenty minutes west on the 10 or Arrow Highway. 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 Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley, along with car accidents in Upland, 210 Freeway collisions, motorcycle crashes, pedestrian injuries, brain injuries, wrongful death and uninsured motorist claims, and we come to you in Upland when that is easier.
Send a few details and an attorney, not a screener, will call you back in English or Spanish. No cost, no obligation, and no fee unless we recover money for you. Phones are answered 24 hours a day.
Cuéntenos qué pasó. Sin costo, sin obligación. Su información es privada.
Answers to what Upland clients ask us first. If your question is not here, call and ask the attorney directly.
If it happened on the 10 or the 210, the California Highway Patrol handles it out of the Rancho Cucamonga Area office at 9530 Pittsburg St. On Foothill, Euclid, Mountain, Arrow Route, Baseline or any other city street, it is the Upland Police Department at 1499 W. 13th St. 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 the measurements and the truck data the standard report does not.
Upland is in San Bernardino County, so an injury case is filed in the San Bernardino Superior Court, and civil cases from Upland go to the Rancho Cucamonga District courthouse at 8303 Haven Ave. That is a different court system, with different judges and local rules, from the Los Angeles Superior Court a few miles west in Claremont. If the trucking company is based out of state, it may try to move the case to federal court in Riverside, and we plan for that from the start.
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.
About eleven miles, twenty minutes. Take the 10 west to Towne Avenue and Arrow Highway into San Dimas, or Arrow Route west through Claremont, or the 210 west to the 57 south and the Bonita Avenue exit. We are on Bonita Avenue in downtown San Dimas with free parking. Francisco also meets Upland clients at home or at San Antonio Regional when driving is not an option.
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.
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 Upland or another public entity contributed to the crash, 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.
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.
Yes. Upland’s designated truck route map sorts every street into three tiers. Foothill, Baseline, Benson, Mountain, Euclid and Campus are open to all trucks; a few connectors are limited to 18 tons; nearly everything else, including Arrow Route and the streets between the freeway and the rail line, is limited to five tons. A loaded semi cutting through a neighborhood to skip a signal is violating a posted safety rule. We also look at whether the carrier’s dispatch schedule or a delivery app sent the driver down that street.
Usually several companies at once. The driver may be an employee or an owner-operator; the carrier whose USDOT number is on the door is responsible for him; the tractor and the trailer may be leased from different owners; a broker chose the carrier; and the shipper or the air cargo handler loaded the trailer. Each of those can share fault and each has its own policy. Finding all of them, and all of the coverage, is the first job in an Upland truck case.
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 210 grade or tailgating on the 10 at Mountain, 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.
Yes. Go to San Antonio Regional on San Bernardino Road right after the crash, or to Pomona Valley Hospital for a serious injury. After that we arrange treatment with orthopedists, physical therapists, chiropractors and imaging centers in the Inland Empire and the Pomona Valley who treat on a lien and are paid from the settlement. If you hit your head, tell the ER and tell us; a concussion with a normal scan is still an injury. Immigration status does not affect your right to treatment or to a recovery.
Morales Law Firm
151 W. Bonita Ave., San Dimas, CA 91773
(626) 521-5402
Free consultation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No fee unless we win. The truck’s data and the driver’s logs do not wait, and neither should the preservation demand.