What to Do if You’re in a Walmart Truck Accident

Walmart is one of the largest retailers in the United States, with a longstanding reputation for its committed delivery services. Walmart boasts an extensive fleet of delivery trucks and other vehicles and has been lauded professionally for providing its drivers with generous salaries and extensive benefits. Thanks to the efforts of its professional drivers, Walmart’s trucking fleet covers an estimated 1 billion miles every year to help give consumers access to the products they rely on every day.

While Walmart has long been recognized as having one of the safest private fleets on the road, this does not mean their drivers are immune from motor vehicle accidents. In traffic accidents involving Walmart delivery vehicles, independent motorists may have legal recourse to seek compensation for property damage, personal injury, or pain and suffering. Let’s cover everything you need to know about navigating the legal system in the aftermath of a Walmart truck accident.

Is Walmart’s fleet actually safer?

Trucking accidents are a growing concern nationwide, but Walmart’s fleet prides itself on being safer and more reliable than its competitors. In 2020, Walmart’s fleet was recognized by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) as:

• Number 1 in national truck safety: Out of all fleets covering over 250 million miles, Walmart’s fleet demonstrated the lowest ratio of accidents to miles driven.
• Number 1 in national industrial safety: This award is reserved for companies with more than 1,000 employees who reported low levels of OSHA-classified driver injuries.

Walmart has often been lauded for providing drivers with industry-leading salaries, even going so far as to offer new drivers salaries exceeding $100,000 per year.

Compare this to many other delivery and logistics companies that outsource their labor to independent contractors or third-party contracting services. Even so, Walmart’s fleet is still operated by people and thus prone to human error. In 2024, Walmart reported 761 traffic accidents, including 244 that caused personal injuries and 26 that were fatal. While this figure may be lower than those reported by many other logistics companies, the reality is that these reports indicate that 270 families had their lives significantly impacted by Walmart trucking accidents last year.

Who is responsible for Walmart truck accidents?

Many logistics companies hire independent contractors and use third-party services to execute delivery functions. In these arrangements, liability in truck accidents tends to be restricted only to the independent contractor or contracting service involved in the crash. This means that if a delivery driver is not a legal employee of a corporation, the corporation cannot be held responsible for the driver’s actions – even if those actions result in a traffic accident.

However, Walmart’s private fleet hires drivers as salaried employees rather than as independent contractors. This arrangement carries different implications for the corporation’s liability in tort claims and personal injury cases. Specifically, Walmart may be required to offer compensation if the negligence of their employee completed in the scope of their employment directly caused harm to another person.

Additionally, Walmart is self-insured, which means the company itself assumes the risk and responsibility of paying out on insurance claims. On the surface, this may seem less complicated than other insurance arrangements, but in practice, this structure often poses a number of challenges to victims.

For example, because this structure requires Walmart to foot the bill for its own insurance claims, the corporation is incentivized to avoid paying out all costs. This can prove problematic for victims of trucking accidents who may be hoping for swift justice to support their recovery needs. For this reason, it is highly advisable for individuals involved in these accidents to seek effective and experienced legal representation from the onset of their case.

What constitutes negligence?

To successfully file a claim against Walmart in the case of a truck accident, victims must be able to demonstrate that the company’s negligence directly contributed to the accident and any subsequent harm it caused. In most cases, this would mean showing that:

• The driver was negligent: If the Walmart truck driver was speeding, distracted, fatigued, or otherwise careless/reckless, Walmart may be held responsible for the accident.
• Walmart did not maintain its equipment: If a crash occurs as the result of mechanical failure, Walmart can be held liable if the plaintiffs can demonstrate the corporation failed to adequately adhere to vehicle safety standards.
• Walmart was aware of and encouraged unsafe practices: If the company maintained policy or practice that required drivers to work excessive overtime or scheduled drivers for multiple overnight shifts a jury may find that the company was negligent.

In all of these scenarios, plaintiffs and their legal teams need to demonstrate that Walmart had a responsibility to engage in safe and legal practices and caused harm to another party as the direct result of shirking that responsibility.

What kinds of damages can be pursued?

If you are injured in an accident involving a Walmart truck, you may be able to file a claim against the company to seek compensation for damages like:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering
• Property damage
• Long-term rehabilitation costs
• Reduced capacity to work

Once again, victims of these crashes are encouraged to seek out experienced truck accident attorneys to help them build a case and determine what kinds of compensation would be indicated in their unique situation.

It is important to note that the state of Georgia has a modified comparative negligence statute. This means a Plaintiff may still recover even if they are partially responsible for an accident. However, a person must be less than 50% at fault in order to recover any damages. In a case where a Plaintiff is found to be less than 50% at fault, the damages awarded will be reduced by Plaintiff’s percentage of fault. For example, if the Plaintiff’s damages total $100,000 and the Plaintiff was found to be 25% at fault and Walmart is 75% at fault, the damages awarded to Plaintiff will be $75,000.

Seeking representation?

Despite its best efforts to ensure safety, Walmart truck accidents are still a cause for concern for motorists in Georgia and across the country. While Walmart’s private fleet and self-insurance model help to mitigate some of the risk posed to the general public by negligent independent drivers, these business structures may result in Walmart absorbing additional liability for accidents involving their drivers and vehicles.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an accident with a Walmart delivery truck, it is important to act quickly to begin gathering evidence. An experienced truck accident attorney at Harris Lowry Manton, LLP can help victims of these crashes determine who is at fault for their accident and what legal recourse may be available to help them secure compensation for their damages.

Harris Lowry Manton, LLP, fights for victims of large trucking accidents and has a long-standing local reputation for helping clients hold logistics companies accountable for their negligence. Our legal team has the experience and resources needed to take on large corporations – even Walmart – and help fight for the justice our clients deserve. Give us a call any time, day or night, to speak with a member of our team.