Havre Truck Accident Lawyer | Semi & Grain Truck Crashes

Havre, MontanaHavre Truck Accident

Havre Truck Accident Lawyers: Grain Trucks, Semi-Truck Crashes and 18-Wheeler Wrecks on US-2 and US-87

Boland Aarab PLLP.

Truck crashes around Havre involve harvest-season grain haulers, cross-border freight coming south from Wild Horse, and semis on US-2 and US-87. A case filed in Hill County goes to the Twelfth Judicial District Court in Havre. Out-of-state carriers often move it to federal court in Great Falls. The carrier’s records can be lawfully destroyed in as little as 6 months.

Seriously hurt, or lost someone, in a crash with a commercial truck on the Hi-Line? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.

What trucks travel through Havre?

Havre is where two freight routes meet, and the trucks on them are not all the same:

Grain trucks and farm semis. Havre sits at the northern tip of Montana’s “Golden Triangle” wheat country. At harvest, tandem grain trucks and farm semis run from fields to elevators, including the CHS Big Sky facility in Havre. They pull onto US-2 from gravel approaches, often loaded heavy and moving slowly. Many are driven by seasonal workers.
Cross-border freight. S-232 runs 42.8 miles north from Havre to the Port of Wild Horse on the Alberta line, and S-233 runs to the Port of Willow Creek in Saskatchewan. Canadian carriers operate on both routes and then enter US-2 in town.
US-87 to Great Falls. US-87 meets US-2 about 2 miles west of Havre and carries freight south through Box Elder and Big Sandy toward Fort Benton.
Long-haul traffic on US-2. US-2 is the east-west freight route across northern Montana. It connects to I-15 at Shelby and runs mostly two-lane, so a semi passing another vehicle is a head-on risk.
Oil field traffic. Water, crude and equipment haulers serve the oil and gas fields around Shelby and the Tiger Ridge area south of Havre.

Winter is the other factor. Wind-driven snow, whiteouts and black ice on open prairie are when jackknifes and rollovers happen. The federal rules require drivers to use extreme caution in hazardous conditions, and to stop if conditions become too dangerous (49 C.F.R. § 392.14). A carrier that pushes a driver through a closed or dangerous stretch of road can share the blame.

What happens after a truck accident in Havre?

Reporting. The Montana Highway Patrol usually investigates truck crashes on US-2, US-87 and the secondary routes. Crashes inside the city are usually handled by the Havre Police Department. A crash in which a commercial vehicle is towed or someone is injured also triggers the carrier’s own post-accident duties, including drug and alcohol testing (49 C.F.R. § 382.303).

State court. Suits over Hill County crashes are filed in the Twelfth Judicial District Court, which serves Liberty, Hill and Chouteau Counties (§ 3-5-101, MCA). The court sits at the Hill County Courthouse, 315 4th Street. A crash near Chinook or Malta goes to the Seventeenth District. A crash near Shelby goes to the Ninth.

Federal court. Interstate and Canadian carriers often remove these cases to the Great Falls Division of the U.S. District Court, which covers Hill County and the rest of the Hi-Line (D. Mont. L.R. 1.2(c)(3)). The federal courthouse is the Missouri River Courthouse in Great Falls, a few blocks from our office.

Evidence. Hours-of-service records need to be kept only 6 months (49 C.F.R. § 395.8(k)), and maintenance files for 1 year (§ 396.3(c)). We send preservation demands to every company involved. We also try to secure the truck, its engine and logging-device data, and any border-crossing records before they are lost.

Are farm trucks held to the same rules?

Not always, and this is one of the first questions in a Hi-Line case. Federal rules give some exceptions to certain farm vehicles and to drivers hauling their own crops close to home. Those exceptions have limits: they depend on the distance traveled, the weight, whether the hauling is for hire, and whether the truck crosses state lines. A commercial grain hauler working for pay is generally held to the full safety rules. Even a truck with a valid exception must be driven carefully. Ordinary Montana negligence law applies to every driver and every truck owner.

Montana law that applies

For the full treatment of federal trucking rules and insurance minimums, see our Montana truck accident lawyer page. In brief:

Montana adopts the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (ARM 18.8.1502).
You have 3 years to file most injury and wrongful-death claims (§ 27-2-204, MCA).
You can recover if your fault is not greater than the defendants’ combined fault (§ 27-1-702, MCA). Montana spreads fault among everyone responsible (§ 27-1-703, MCA).
Punitive damages for actual malice are capped at $10 million or 3% of the defendant’s net worth, whichever is less (§ 27-1-220, MCA).

Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Havre case?

Truck cases on the Hi-Line are often tried in Great Falls, because that is where the federal court for Hill County sits. Our office is in Great Falls. We handle cases statewide, and we drive the Hi-Line for scene inspections, truck inspections, depositions and hearings in Havre. We have also tried a case to a Phillips County jury in Malta, on the Hi-Line. We do not have an office in Havre, and you don’t need a lawyer who does.

The Boland Aarab Way

We try cases and defend the verdicts. When a Phillips County jury’s $168,500 verdict for a rear-ended driver was thrown out, the Montana Supreme Court reinstated it on our appeal (Voegel v. Salsbery, 2023 MT 137).
We are at home in federal court. Our attorneys have handled more than 40 cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana over nine years, and Samir Aarab has argued twice before the Ninth Circuit.
We have courtroom experience. Our attorneys have spent more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom.
We belong to the trial bar. Both attorneys are AAJ and MTLA members, Caitlin Boland Aarab serves on the MTLA Board, and Samir Aarab is also a member of Public Justice.

Frequently Asked Questions

A grain truck pulled out in front of me during harvest. Who is responsible? It may be the driver, the farm or operation that owns the truck, or a hauling company that hired the driver. The answer depends on who employed the driver and who owned the load. We look at all three, as well as the insurance on each.

The truck was Canadian. Where will my case be heard? A crash in Hill County can be filed in the Twelfth Judicial District Court in Havre. A foreign carrier will often remove the case to the federal court’s Great Falls Division. Canadian carriers operating in the U.S. must meet federal insurance requirements.

Does the Montana Highway Patrol report tell me who was at fault? It tells you what the trooper saw and concluded. It isn’t the final word. The engine data, the logs and the physical evidence often tell a fuller story.

What if the crash happened in a whiteout on US-2? Drivers must slow down or stop when conditions become too dangerous, and carriers cannot pressure them to keep going. Bad weather is often part of the negligence case, not a defense to it.

How fast do I need to act? Quickly. Key federal records can be kept for as little as 6 months, and the truck may be repaired or sold sooner than that. The lawsuit deadline is generally 3 years, but the evidence won’t last that long.

Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.

Our attorneys: Caitlin Boland Aarab · Samir F. Aarab

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.